Outbreak
by Kascaed
Summary: Origin Story. When Raincoat Corporation started kidnapping metahumans, Batman sent Robin to stop them. The team is all together now, and the fighting is about to begin.
1. The North Wind Doth Blow

AN: So, here we are, at the beginning. The Titans, before they were...titanic. The backstory of the characters is a curious mash of the cartoon, the comics, and my own ideas, so if something doesn't seem quite right, it's probably because I decided to change it. This is bascially a trial run for me. I have a massive Titans story planned, but I've no idea if I'll actually be able to write it. It'll consist of about five or six arcs of equal length to this story, so if I stuggle to do this there's no way I can do the other one. On the other hand, if I do get onto the other one, this story will set up a couple of the characters appearing in the next one.

I will also be referencing as many movies and books as I can cram in. See if you can spot them all.

Anyway, on with the fic!

* * *

"_I'm not happy with this." _

"_I'm good enough to work on my own!"_

"_You are a skilled fighter, true, but you're used to working with backup. You don't have the experience for solo missions yet."_

"_How will I get the experience if you refuse to send me on any?"_

"_I am sending you on one now. I'm just not happy with it."_

"_You're not happy with anything I do."_

Dark grey clouds floated ominously above Jump City as Robin approached on his motorcycle. The journey from Gotham had been a cold one, making him wish for a full body costume, or in-suit heating, or at the very least a long-sleeved shirt. It was one of the hidden facets of being a superhero; the costume may make you stand out, and strong winds can be very dramatic, but more often than not you just end up bloody cold.

Robin sighed. He'd argued with Batman for hours to be let on this mission, and now he was finally on his way, all he could do was complain. To take his mind off of his discomforts (and it was really about time to do so anyway, the city in the distance growing rapidly larger) he mentally reviewed the information Batman had given him.

Jump City, located on the western coast of the US, population at last census: 734,652 , notable superhero population: 0. While there had been many reports of meta-human activity no one seemed willing to step forward and claim Jump for their own. Which is why Robin was there. There had been disturbing rumours of unexplained disappearances and kidnappings, most of which involving known meta-humans (the rest of which it was presumed involved unknown meta-humans) that were connected to the Raincoat Corporation, whose main expertise was in experimental weapons research. Adding two and two together, it seemed clear that Raincoat Corporation were taking advantage of the lack of any real superhero presence in order to conduct illegal research on what makes metas tick. Using the information gained from the research, they could secure more government funding, make more money, and generally carry out the nefarious schemes evil corporations are wont to do.

Batman wanted them stopped. Unfortunately (or not), the Justice League had called on him with much more important business just as he was about to leave Gotham, thus providing Robin with the opportunity he had been waiting for. As soon as Batman had shut down communications with the Watchtower, Robin was at his side begging for the mission. It took a lot more convincing than he had expected, and had Batman not been so unsure of when he would return Robin doubted he'd have been given the mission at all, but in the end Batman relented. Robin found his thoughts returning to where they had been for most of his journey, to the bitter words exchanged at the end of the conversation. Batman's final comment had been as curt as ever.

"_I'm not a happy person."_

Ten points for observation. And suddenly Robin couldn't contain it any more. All the anger, all the pain, all the frustration built up with having such a man as a mentor. Constantly seeking approval that never comes, and when it does, it's a small, grudging thing. Fighting night and day to meet the impossible expectations, and all of it because he's _not a happy person_. The pent up emotion of several years threatened to explode but in the middle of a busy motorway was no place for it to happen, so Robin pulled his motorcycle onto the hard shoulder and turned off the engine. He had just enough time to remove his helmet before his self-restraint ran out.

He burst out laughing.

After some time he managed to wheeze out "Not…a…happy…person…" before it set him off again.

He eventually pulled himself together, but only after his mask threatened to fill up with tears. For however short a time it was, he was free from Batman, and he hadn't been aware of quite how much he needed this.

Which, of course, led to him throwing back his head and screaming up at the sky, "FREEDOM!"

He laughed again, not the catharsis of laughter he had just undertaken, but a revelling laugh. He laughed because he could. And that was right.

Pulling his helmet back on he set off down the motorway again, just as the clouds decided to follow Robin's example and unleash their bottled up energy. A torrent of rain flung itself to the ground, beating at the cars and other vehicles on the road. Jump City all but disappeared into the murk of the falling rain.

He'd never been to Jump before, and it was going to be hard enough navigating the unfamiliar streets without contending with rain as well. His first point of action upon arrival in the city would be to find a place to stay. Batman had provided him with a list of potential places, but he hoped not to have to use them. Instead, he was going to try and seek out one of the resident metahumans, who might not only put a roof over his head but also help him with his investigations at the Raincoat facility. Someone with local knowledge may prove to be invaluable. There were a number to choose from, but the only one Robin was seriously considering was a half human, half robot teenager who called himself Cyborg. Most of the other metas seemed to have very little desire to distinguish themselves as heroes and it seemed that those who fought crime just as often committed it. Cyborg was the exception, protecting those that needed it but never going too far. Thus far there hadn't been a serious threat to the city, mostly just thugs and bank robberies, but the robotic teen had managed to handle himself well.

As Robin finally entered the boundaries of the city, he brought up a map on a screen. Cyborg also happened to be the easiest to find, living in a tower on an island in the bay, although when Robin was discussing his plans with Batman his mentor had mentioned something about it being a little bit hard to get to. When Robin checked the map he saw that a bridge connected the island to the mainland so he wasn't sure what Batman was talking about, but he figured he'd find out soon enough. Besides, Cyborg wasn't the only option, just the best one.

Robin pulled the motorcycle onto Ocean Avenue, of which Cyborg's tower was Number 1. As he neared the ocean and the buildings on either side began to fan out, he got his first clear view of the tower.

A tower shaped like a giant T.

He briefly tried to figure out why anyone would want to build a tower shaped like a giant T, but did not have much time to debate with himself about this due to having to slow to a halt. The road, which was supposed to be bridged to the island on which the tower stood, instead fell away into the ocean.

"A little hard to get to, that's a fact." He muttered to himself under his breath.

He glanced around, considering his options. He could give up on Cyborg and find one of the less suitable candidates, but he was loath to do so at only the first hurdle he encountered. He could swim across, but with the armour of his costume weighing him down it would be a tough swim and he wouldn't particularly enjoy the swim back, either. However, this brought to mind that the resident of the tower must somehow be getting to and from the island, and Robin doubted that he would be swimming. Instead of going straight up to the tower and knocking on the door, he'd just give Cyborg a call. If he wanted to speak to Robin they could work out arrangements from there; if not, it would just have been a waste of time going up to the tower anyway.

There was an in-built communication system in the motorcycle and connected to Robin's helmet, so all he had to do was dial the number he had memorised when preparing for the mission. The phone rang twice before being answered by what was clearly a recorded message.

"Thank you for calling Titan Industries Tower. If you already know the section you are looking for, press one. If you would like to hear a list of available sections, press two. If you would like to speak to one of our advisors, press three." Robin hesitated a moment before pressing three. As far as he knew, the only occupant of the tower was supposed to be Cyborg. After hearing a couple of clicks and pauses, the voice once against issued from the phone. "Unfortunately there are no advisors currently available. If your call is urgent, please leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible." After this followed the customary beep which signalled that a message was being recorded.

"This is Robin, protégé of Batman. I've been sent on a mission here in Jump City and was looking for the metahuman known as Cyborg, with the hopes that he could help me. I am currently standing at the end of Ocean Avenue. If you're listening to this Cyborg, I'd appreciate some kind of sign that you are interested in helping me. If not, I probably won't bother trying to contact you again." At this point Robin paused, waiting for an indication that Cyborg had heard him. Nothing happened. "Well, if you change you're mind or it turns out I just missed you, you can contact me--"

Robin was interrupted by a rushing sound and his attention was drawn to the water in front of him, which was beginning to churn and froth. As he watched, the missing bridge rose up from the ocean and clunked into position, a few stray pieces of seaweed littering the road but otherwise no worse for it's bed beneath the waves.

"Cool." Robin said, as he started up the motorcycle and made his way across to the tower.

* * *

AN: More of a prologue than an actual chapter, although I can't promise the proper chapters will be too much longer. 


	2. Le Nyctalope

AN: Chapter 2, just in time for christmas! I won't tell you how long it took me to write the first two chapters because you'll probably kill me, but I will say the only reason this is being updated so quickly is because I'd already finished chapter 2 before I posted chapter 1. And since I haven't started 3 yet...it may be a while before you see it. But I'll try and write as quickly as I can.

* * *

Titan Tower was built in the late seventies. Originally it was used as the headquarters of Titan Industries, a computer technology corporation not dissimilar to Wayne Enterprises. At the time that the Tower was built Titan Industries was a fairly small company and the novelty of the tower being shaped like a T helped to gain national recognition, but as the company grew it was more often ridiculed by competitors for its letter-shaped base of operations. As the years went by, the board of directors grew less enamoured with their trademark tower, not only as the amusement wore off but also as it became increasingly unsuitable for the high-tech computer industry.

Plus, it could be really hard to get to.

Eventually, a choice was made to relocate to the slightly larger city of Overville. Whilst Titan Industries still owned the Tower, it was designed in an age where computers were still large and cumbersome, and a new use for the Tower was hard to find. Eventually, they gave up, switched off all the lights, and locked the doors. It remained dormant for five years.

The events that brought life back to the Tower were tragic. An experiment gone wrong in a Titan Industries research lab resulted in the deaths of three people and the horrible mangling of a young boy. As compensation, the boy's father (who was also one of the head scientists at Titan Industries) requested the use of Titan Tower in order to mechanically recreate parts of his son's body and restore to him some aspects of life that he thought were forever lost. Some of the rooms in the Tower were refitted for this purpose, and the father worked feverishly night and day to accomplish his goal. And eventually, he succeeded.

Thus did Cyborg come into being.

The boy's pain had not yet ended, however, as shortly afterwards his father was killed in a plane crash. Rule of the Tower passed to him, but without his father he was alone. Fearful of his reception in the outside world, he made sure it stayed that way.

Until recently, Cyborg's life had consisted of learning all he could about robotics in order to upgrade his own systems, all the while rarely leaving the Tower. That was until he realised he'd learned most of what there was to know, and found himself with nothing to do. Facing one of those questions that pretty much everyone had to face at some point, Cyborg had to ask himself what he wanted his life to be about. Before the accident he had been a promising athlete and was content to follow that path, but now that option was forever lost to him. His cybernetic parts also made other jobs impossible, but while some doors were closed, others were opened and he decided he wanted to help people. With that in mind, certain changes were in order to modify his existing body into more of a weapon. Advanced sensors and a sonic cannon in his right arm meant that no common thug or petty criminal could stand against him.

His nights were spent patrolling the city disguised by a hooded jacket, while during his days he carried out maintenance on himself and on the Tower. And this is where we find him; working at the main computer on an upgrade to the security system.

That is, until the phone started ringing.

Technically, there wasn't actually a phone as Cyborg had installed a communication device into his arm that provided the same function, but since it wasn't currently patched in to the Tower's systems the ringing was coming from a loudspeaker. In the way that people do, Cyborg's gaze shifted to the speaker, though of course he could not see anything from it. It wasn't all that unusual to receive a call, either from a wrong number or from a company that had not updated their address book, but the one or two people that would actually want to contact Cyborg had other means of doing so. Which was why he was so surprised when the caller decided to leave a message.

"_This is Robin, protégé of Batman. I've been sent on a mission here in Jump City and was looking for the metahuman known as Cyborg, with the hopes that he could help me._ _I am currently standing at the end of Ocean Avenue. If you're listening to this Cyborg, I'd appreciate some kind of sign that you are interested in helping me. If not, I probably won't bother trying to contact you again."_

Robin? Here? And looking for him? Cyborg hit a few keys on the keyboard and a window opened showing the view looking across the water towards the city. Zooming in, he confirmed that there was indeed a figure sitting on a motorcycle at the end of Ocean Avenue, and from what Cyborg could recall the costume was that of the Boy Wonder.

When the shock of the situation cleared from his mind, Cyborg was left with a choice: aid Robin, possibly risking life and limb, or sit in the tower and let the chance pass him by.

Okay, when it was put like that, it wasn't much of a choice.

Cyborg palmed the switch that would raise the bridge and waited only long enough to make sure that Robin got the hint before heading as fast as he could for the front door. A short elevator ride later (he checked how he looked in the reflective surface of the elevator wall; not his best, but as good as could be hoped for at such short notice) he found himself in front of the huge t-shaped main entrance. Cyborg keyed a sequence of numbers into the pad on his arm and watched as the double doors slid open to reveal a rain drenched figure standing beside a motorcycle, in the process of removing his helmet. In the background, the bridge was already descending back beneath the waves.

"Cyborg, I presume?" Said Robin, placing his helmet on the seat of his bike. The rain fell on his head for the first time, making his spiky hair droop slightly under the added weight of the water.

Cyborg grinned, his organic eye showing the amusement the mechanical one could not. "What gave it away?" He turned slightly, gesturing for Robin to enter. "You can bring the bike in too, if you want."

"Thanks." Robin replied, wheeling the bike through the doors. He set it on its stand and began dusting the water from his costume as Cyborg closed the door behind him. "Interesting place you have here." Robin commented, as he surveyed his surrounding. The main hall was carpeted down the centre and lined with chairs, but otherwise unremarkable. The only door in the corridor led to the elevator.

"It's not really mine. Not officially, anyway. I get to stay here, and I can do what I want with it, but I can't sell it. Not that I'd have anywhere else to go if I did sell it..." Cyborg trailed off as he realised he was babbling. Seeing that Robin had finished arranging his costume, Cyborg set off down the hall. "So, what brings you here?"

In response, Robin inquired "What do you know about Raincoat Corporation?"

Cyborg paused for a moment, considering the question. "Not a lot. Only that they're a relatively new business around here, and that they have a large research facility just outside of town. Are they doing something illegal?"

They had reached the elevator, Cyborg gesturing for Robin to enter first. Considering his options, Cyborg hesitated slightly before pressing the button to take them to the control room. He did not usually permit visitors to the Tower to see the place where it was managed from, but this was Robin. The Boy Wonder. Batman's sidekick. Cyborg was not too old for hero worship.

A very slight judder indicated the elevator was moving, so Cyborg returned his attention back to his guest.

"We suspect they've been kidnapping metahumans and experimenting on them." Robin said. "We're not sure exactly what the experiments entail, but whatever it is it can't be good. My intention is to first confirm our suspicions, and then put a stop to it."

"That explains why you're in Jump City," Cyborg replied "but why are you _here_?"

At that moment the elevator door opened, and Cyborg led the way out into the corridor. There were a number of corridors leading off in different directions, and many closed doors, but Cyborg headed straight for a set of double doors at the end of the passage facing directly onto the elevator. In other words, straight ahead.

"Well, I've never been to Jump City before. I don't know my way around, I don't have any reliable contacts, and to be honest I'm not used to working on my own." Robin stopped just before the doors, turning to face Cyborg fully. "I'd really appreciate your help."

Though his eyes were hidden by a mask, Cyborg could still tell how earnestly Robin was speaking.

"You name it, you got it." Cyborg replied.

"Cool." Robin said, a smile on his face. The door opened beside them and they turned and entered the room.

The control room of Titan Tower was a mess of power cables and computer parts, a rough path almost visible leading to a large number of computer screens at the far end of the room. Behind it was a huge ceiling-to-floor window looking out across the bay, the rain still hammering against the glass. Cyborg carefully picked his way across the floor to the computer. He looked around for a second chair, but finding none, he gestured to Robin to sit while he grabbed a nearby box and pulled it over.

Robin was already loading a disk into the computer and pulling up the plans for the Raincoat facility.

"Okay, so it looks like there are two separate buildings." Robin said, reading the diagram. "One seems to be offices and such, most likely their main administrative building. Six stories above ground and one basement level. The other building is all on the ground floor and is probably where most of the research is carried out."

"This isn't really my area, but I think there's something wrong with these plans." Cyborg said.

"What?"

Cyborg pointed at the screen.

"It says the date on them is 1973. That should be roughly when the place was first built."

"So why is that a problem?" Robin asked.

"Well, Raincoat only bought the place last year, and when they did there was some major redesigning going on. With the amount of trucks going in and out of that place it would probably have been easier just to build from scratch. With so much work being done, wouldn't the plans have been changed or updated?"

"They should have been." Robin said, grimly. "This changes things. If they've somehow managed to keep the current layout of the facility out of computer records there's no easy way to get them."

"So we do nothing?" Cyborg said.

A ghost of a smile appeared on Robin's face. "Do you always give up so easily?"

Cyborg bristled at that. "What do you suggest then, fearless leader?"

"A recon. We go to the facility and check it out."

"Okay." Cyborg replied. "When?"

"Tonight."

Once it was decided, there wasn't much more to be done. Robin told Cyborg to find some dark clothes to help with stealthing about, and then wondered why Cyborg collapsed on the floor laughing and pointing at the Boy Wonder's own uniform. Cyborg showed Robin to a room he could call his own while staying, and then gave a short guided tour of the tower. Then, with nothing better to do until darkness fell, and to prove a point, Robin challenged Cyborg to a game of hide and seek.

Even though he had much better knowledge of the Tower, Cyborg lost.

Badly.

As a result, he ended up paying for the pizza they got delivered for dinner. Cyborg was having more fun than he could remember in a long time, despite – or perhaps because of – the competitive air between the two. It didn't seem long before they were heading out across town to the Raincoat facility, the two of them on Robin's motorcycle. The facility itself was actually outside of Jump City, although with the rate of growth it probably wouldn't remain that way for long.

They pulled off the road a mile or so away, and with the R cycle sufficiently hidden in amongst bushes, they walked the rest of the way. It had thankfully stopped raining at some point in the afternoon.

Robin whistled as they rounded the last bend in the road and got their first look of the facility. Or the front gate, anyway.

"It looks more like a military base than an R&D site!" he exclaimed quietly. Cyborg spotted four armed guards at the gate, which was ten foot tall and looked to be about a foot thick. Barbed wire fencing of equal height to the gate extended in either direction.

"They've even got guards walking the perimeter." Robin said, and Cyborg turned his attention to where the other teen was looking. Sure enough, there were two armed guards walking a path inside the perimeter. Cyborg hadn't even noticed them, and knew Robin had taken pleasure in pointing them out.

"Unfortunately we can't see the actual facility from here, it's too far away in this light." Robin continued. "We'll have to get closer."

Feeling it was his turn to be smug for a change, and about time too, Cyborg said "Maybe you can't see it from here, but I can." He tapped his head beside his mechanical eye, which he then zoomed in on the location. Seeing nothing but darkness, he switched to nightvision…and swore. The glare from the lights on the gate made it impossible to see past them. When his vision returned to normal, he could see that Robin was smirking.

"Did you think I don't have access to night vision goggles?" Robin asked. Unwilling to respond, Cyborg changed the subject.

"So what now? How do we get in?"

"Now, we get a little closer, see what the facility looks like. If we can do it tonight we'll get inside and I'll try and find some plans or blueprints of the place. But it's possible it's not worth the risk of getting past the fence, I may need some special equipment for that." With that, Robin turned and led them into the woods, travelling quite a long way out from the road before finally turning in towards the facility. They reached the fence, but stayed beneath the cover of the trees, most of which were cut back a good couple of metres away. From here they could finally see the place they had come to infiltrate.

It looked remarkably similar to what the blueprints said it should look like. The only major difference was that where the plans indicated two separate buildings, it seemed like they had been extended to meet each other. The extension was also only at ground level, leaving the only thing with multiple floors as the admin section.

"That still doesn't look right." Cyborg said, after considering it for a few minutes. "The amount of stuff they were bringing in here…well, it looked like they could have built something twice the size of this."

"You're sure?" Robin asked.

"Yup. Dead sure."

"Okay. Looks like we're going in. There are too many sensors they could have on the fence to risk going through it without more specialised equipment. Cameras every fifty yards or so. Best chance is to find somewhere to go over."

"Over?" Cyborg looked up at the imposing, ten foot tall, topped with barbed wire fence. "Maybe Superman has been giving you lessons in how to jump tall buildings in a single bound, but there's no way I can clear that."

"Not even with a little help?" Robin said, nodding his head towards an area where the trees were growing slightly closer to the fence. One of them had branches that extended almost to the barrier. Cyborg grinned.

"Well, with a little help, I might be able to manage it." He turned serious. "But how do we get out again?"

"That's the easy part." Robin responded. "Places like this are designed to keep people out, not to stop them from leaving."

They made their way along the tree line until they reached the right spot. Surprisingly, Cyborg had more trouble getting up the tree than he did going over the fence. The smooth metal of his hands and feet found it difficult to gain purchase on the bark of the tree. He'd have to look into that.

After Robin had lowered a rope he finally made it up onto the branch, and from there, over the fence, pleased with himself when he landed quietly. Robin, of course, didn't make a sound.

"The guards will be here in five minutes. We'd better move away from the fence and find somewhere for you to hide." Robin said.

"Hide?" Cyborg frowned. "I'm supposed to hide somewhere?" Robin sighed.

"Look, no offence, but there's no way you'll be able to sneak around in there without getting caught. The only chance we have to get in and out without being seen is for me to go alone." Seeing that Cyborg was about to protest, he went on. "This is just the recon, remember? Once we know the layout of the place, we can both come back to rescue the people they're holding. I'll definitely need your help on that mission."

Somewhat mollified, Cyborg nodded, and they made their way towards the facility until they came across a stack of empty crates for him to hide in.

"If I'm not back in…oh, an hour, it's probably safe to assume I won't be coming back." With that, Robin left, disappearing into the shadows. Cyborg switched his eye to infrared and followed the other teen's progress, until he rounded a corner and was out of sight. Cyborg had one more glance around before settling down to wait.

He reflected over the day he had had, which first began like any other but had shortly been interrupted by the Boy Wonder, protégé to Batman himself, Robin. Cyborg found it hard to associate the legend of Robin with the teenager he was dealing with. At times he was everything you'd expect from such a person; stoic, uncompromising, and better than competent at absolutely everything. At other times though, he just seemed like a normal teenage boy. The game of hide and seek, for instance. Cyborg was sure there was some ulterior motive to it, to see how good he himself was at being stealthy, or something along those lines, and yet he also knew that Robin had enjoyed it for the simple game that it was.

Or possibly he just enjoyed it because he was so damn good at it, Cyborg thought ruefully. Despite being out-done at absolutely everything so far, though, Cyborg decided he liked the kid. Even if he did use too much hair gel.

And what they were doing now, although perhaps not the most legal of things…it felt _right_. They were doing it to help people. On a bigger scale than just petty thievery or muggings. Suddenly Cyborg knew that this is what he was supposed to do. Jump City was his city, and he was here to protect it. Maybe he could get a team together if he could talk some other metas that he knew into helping, and they could operate out of the Tower. If not, he'd just have to work alone.

He checked the time: almost twenty minutes had passed. He wasn't sure when to expect Robin's return, but the one hour deadline was still quite a way off. Then, in the distance, but still loud, he heard an alarm go off.

Swearing, he leaped out of the crate, only to come face to face with a guard. The guard seemed equally as shocked as Cyborg was, but reacted faster, bringing his gun up to point it at the teen.

"Freeze!" he shouted, somewhat needlessly. Cyborg hadn't gotten around to moving yet.

"Put you hands in the air, slowly." Said another guard who had been slightly behind the first. Both were now pointing their weapons at Cyborg.

"Okay, I'm raising my hands, no need to get trigger happy…" Cyborg said, as he did what was instructed.

He let his hands get half way into the air before firing his sonic cannon, which at that point was conveniently pointed directly at the guards. Both of them were blasted backwards, and when they landed, they didn't get up again. Cyborg stood watching them for a few moments, urging his breathing back to normal as he got over how quickly it had all happened. He got a second shock a few second later when a voice muttered in his ear.

"Nice work."

He jumped around, bringing the sonic cannon up to fire again, but stopped himself at the last moment when he saw it was Robin.

"Man, don't scare me like that! What the hell do you think you were doing? I swear, if I had a proper heart it would have stopped beating by now."

Robin smiled in apology.

"We better get going, they won't be too far behind me."

"What happened?" Cyborg asked. Robin had the grace to look sheepish.

"They had a much more advanced security system than I thought. I barely even got in before I tripped a sensor. Unfortunately, this complicates things even more." Robin started jogging towards the fence then, and Cyborg kept pace with him. "They know we're on to them, so security will be even tighter. I'm not sure how we're going to do this."

They had almost reached the fence then, and Cyborg slowed, wondering how they were going to get past it. But Robin kept going. Cyborg saw him reach into his belt and pull something out, before tossing it at the barrier. It exploded on impact, blasting the metal fencing apart.

"There's no point worrying about stealth now." Robin said. Then he pulled something else from his belt, and dropped it in the middle of gap that had been made. "Besides, now they'll definitely come this way, and they'll find a surprise."

He sprinted off into the trees, and didn't slacken the pace until a few minutes later when they heard a muted explosion. Even then, he didn't slow much, so it was between gasps of breath that Cyborg spoke.

"What was… the surprise?"

A couple of gasping breaths.

"Itching powder." Robin responded. Cyborg would have laughed if he could have spared the oxygen. There was a few minutes of silence before Cyborg asked another question.

"Is it always this much fun?"

Robin's grin, feral in nature, visible only by moonlight breaking through the trees, was all the response he needed. He grinned back and kept running.

In no time at all, and also eternity, they reached the motorcycle and disentangled it from the bushes where they had hidden it. Without sparing even the time to put on their helmets, they were off and away, roaring down the quiet roads at speeds Cyborg didn't even want to know. After a couple of minutes Robin turned around and shouted something along the lines of "we're safe" and he slowed to travel at more humane speeds, but it wasn't until he was back on his little island with the bridge disappearing once again beneath the waves that Cyborg truly relaxed.

Despite the late hour, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, which was lucky as it seemed they had a lot to talk about.

"I screwed up." Robin said later, as they both sipped on hot chocolates.

"You couldn't have known." Cyborg offered in response, but Robin shook his head.

"I should have known better, I should have been more careful. Now, I have no idea how we're going to do this without help."

Cyborg considered this.

"What kind of help?"


	3. A Midnight Dreary

AN: I honestly can't believe how quickly I've written this chapter. Not that it was particularly quick, but for me, it was about ten months faster than the other two. I'd say it'll probably be another week until the next chapter, but at this time of year I really have no idea.

Incidently, a couple of hundred words into this chapter made "Outbreak" the longest story I have ever written.

* * *

It was almost three in the morning when she heard a knock on her door. Rising gracefully, she crossed the room and reached for the lock, not bothering to check who was on the other side before twisting the knob and pulling the door open. She was greeted by two figures, one of which she recognised and the other – she realised, after the briefest of double-takes – was also familiar.

"Cyborg." She said.

"Raven." He replied.

They stood in silence for a moment.

"Can we come in?" Cyborg asked.

Raven turned and walked back into the room, giving no response. But she had left the door open, and so they entered.

The place Raven now called home was little more than an empty room. There was a mattress in one corner and cushions scattered across the floor, and a pile of heavy looking books beside the mattress. Sitting on top of the books, a mirror. There was one other door that led to a toilet, but other than that, the place was empty.

Raven sat on the cushions where she had been before she was interrupted. She watched as Cyborg made his way to the mattress and sank down to the floor, Robin taking the space next to him.

"I see you're no longer hiding who you are," she said to the metal teen, who indeed had discarded his hooded sweatshirt. To someone else (perhaps even to Robin, who was after all a stranger, even if he was a very intuitive one) this would seem like small talk, but Raven was not the kind of person who indulged in small talk. Despite the name he chose and despite patrolling the city to protect its people, Cyborg hid himself from them. He locked himself up in his tower, and when he did leave, he covered himself up.

But now he had discarded the sweatshirt and was going about the city as only himself. Raven recognised what this meant. She knew that he was now beyond merely accepting his situation; he had now embraced it. She thought of the clothes she had tucked under the mattress, the ones she wore outside in order to blend in, and thought she should probably do the same. She still wore her leotard and cloak when she was inside.

Cyborg smiled at her.

"I suddenly realised that I put all this effort into looking good, and I wasn't getting to show it off."

Raven managed to twitch her lips in response, feeling as glad for him as she would allow herself to feel. Knowing that they were drawing dangerously close to small talk, she went straight to the point.

"Why are you here?" she asked. "And, more specifically, why is _he_ here?" She nodded toward Robin, acknowledging him for the first time. He obviously wasn't used to being talked about in such a manner because he opened his mouth to respond, but Cyborg held a hand up to stop him.

"He's here because he's investigating Raincoat. It's likely that they're behind a recent rash of kidnappings – metahuman kidnappings. He asked for my help," Cyborg said. "We're here because I want to ask for your help."

Raven eyed him warily.

"This isn't another one of your attempts to get me involved in the superhero business, is it?" She asked him. At that, he looked mildly insulted.

"Raven, you asked me not to do that any more, so I didn't and I won't. I honestly think you're the best – no, I honestly think you're the only person that can help us. You should know by now that I wouldn't ask if I didn't think there was any other option."

She sighed, because she did know that. And she also knew that if it was anyone else but Cyborg, she'd turn them down immediately. But he had helped her when she had first arrived, and he'd checked up on her every now and then, so she owed him. She owed him at least enough to hear him out. So she turned to Robin and addressed him directly for the first time.

"What's the situation?" she asked.

He broke it down for her; the kidnappings, the blueprints, their plan to do a recon, how it had failed, and Cyborg's suggestion that they come visit her.

"Basically, we're sure they're the ones responsible, but we don't have any proof. We can't get any proof unless we can get inside. We can't get inside unless we can get the blueprints, and the blueprints we can get are wrong. So we need you to get inside and find proof, and/or rescue the prisoners," he finished.

She was silent, pondering the problem. Teleportation seemed an obvious choice, but that was always risky if you didn't know where you were going – blueprint problem again. The other option was to walk in through the front door, either by invisibility or mind control. Raven reached across to the pile of books, extracting one from the middle, being careful of the mirror still balanced on top. Having safely removed the book she flipped it open and began searching through it.

Yes, mind control would be the better of the two options. Sneaking around was useful, but it was still better when you knew what you were looking for and where to find it. With mind control, however, she could get the full guided tour.

She reached the page she was looking for and read it over. It would be difficult, but not impossible. It might drain her for a while though. She closed the book and looked up at Robin and Cyborg, who had been watching her wordlessly.

"I'll think about it," she said. "If I do agree to do it, it'll take a couple of days to prepare anyway. I know how to contact you." She rose to her feet, and the others followed suit.

"Raven…" Cyborg started, and then paused, considering his phrasing. "It might be better, if you do decide to help us, for you to join us in the Tower."

It was an old discussion between them, as he was uncomfortable with her staying where she was, and quite vocal about telling her so. She had always politely yet vehemently refused the offer, hence his reluctance to bring the topic up.

"Join the Titans in the Tower?" She replied, as she always did. "But what happens when the Olympians come knocking?"

The first time she had asked him that he had been confused, his knowledge of ancient Greek mythology sketchy at best. But he had read up on it, and now knew the tales of how Cronus had been defeated by Zeus.

"I don't believe in destiny or prophecies. If the Olympians come knocking, I'll knock them right back."

Oh, Cyborg, Raven thought. If only you knew.

"Besides," he continued, "I don't know about you, but I'm not planning on having kids any time soon and even if I do, I promise you here and now that I won't eat a single one."

Raven had to smile at that. A small smile, but it was there. And he did have a point; it would be easier to work in the Tower.

"I suppose that as long as that's clear, and only if I agree to help you, I'll join you in the Tower for a while."

He beamed at her, pleased at even that small concession.

"That's great!" Cyborg said as she finally managed to guide the other two out of her room. "I don't want to rush you or anything, but try and let us know as soon as you can."

"I will," she responded, and then she closed the door. Faintly she could hear Robin asking Cyborg if she was always like this, but she put the two of them out of her mind. Now she had to decide whether to help them or not, and that meant thinking about why she was here in the first place.

It wasn't that complicated, really. She was no longer welcome in Azarath so she had come here, and once she had arrived, she knew that this is where she was meant to be. And that could only mean one thing.

This was the world that Trigon would invade.

She had considered running, at first. Leaving this place, doing anything she could to rebel against the prophecy. But she knew in her heart that it would come true eventually, just as she knew in her heart that it would happen here. No matter how far she ran, no matter how she tried to hide herself, destiny would bring her back here for the end. Which meant that running would be no more than a waste of energy.

So she had decided to stay, and Cyborg, who she had almost landed on top of when she first arrived, had helped her find a place to live and sell what possessions she brought with her for money. He had tried to convince her to join a superhero team, partly to get her out of the crummy apartment she was staying in and partly, she thought, for the companionship. Every time he brought it up she had refused, and she couldn't bring herself to tell him the real reason why.

She just couldn't do it. She couldn't go out there and save people's lives, she couldn't put herself up on a pedestal to be respected and admired, couldn't bring herself to save the world when she knew that, one day, she was going to end it.

This was different, though. This was just a one time thing. At the end of it, Robin would go back to Gotham, and Cyborg would step forward to become the superhero that protected Jump City. There was no real supervillain threat here; she knew that Cyborg was more than capable of handling the place on his own. If things got a little tougher down the road, well, he'd made friends with Robin now.

Having gone over the pros and cons, she decided to meditate for a while, allowing time for all her initial emotions and reactions to seep away. She was already sitting back on her cushions, so she merely closed her eyes and emptied her mind.

Having done so, Raven didn't even get a chance to begin her customary chant before she felt a tug in her mind. Pulling her attention to it, she realised what it was, and immediately it faded as the shock made her lose her concentration.

It was Destiny.

She'd always had precognitive abilities; apparently, she'd recited the Prophecy herself the day she was born, which had really freaked everyone out. But never before had it presented itself to her more clearly. It always came in dreams, or on the odd occasion when she was ill and had a fever. Never when she was lucid. Never like this.

It was unmistakable, though, and what it was saying came through loud and clear: help them.

She realised she would probably have done so anyway, even without this message – she owed Cyborg too much to let him down – but there was no doubt in her mind now.

She dragged herself over to the mattress and lifted it up, snatching out the clothes she had stashed under there. Feeling around in the pockets of the jeans, she finally managed to pull out a communicator that Cyborg had given her for emergencies.

"Cyborg?" she spoke into it.

"Raven? What's up?" He was having to shout in order to be heard, the whistling of the wind drowning out most of the noise. They must still be in transit.

"I'll help," she replied. She heard him whoop.

"That's great! Get to the Tower whenever you're ready!"

She glanced around the room.

"I'll beat you there," she said, standing up. She reached down to pick up the clothes but after a second's hesitation, she decided against it. Instead, she turned and picked up the books, one hand steadying the mirror on top. Without any further ado, she sank into the shadows, and reappeared at the front door of Titan Tower, watching as a red motorcycle crossed the bridge and pulled up in front of her. It was raining again. Cyborg jumped off and rushed to help hair with the books as the door opened behind her.

"Thanks a lot for helping us Raven, I've got no idea what we would've done if you said no."

"Now that you've decided to help us, do you mind enlightening us as to what your plan actually is?" Robin said, as he followed them into the hallway.

"Of course." Raven replied. "I intend to use a spell in order to make them think I'm a member of the board of executives. There's one spell in particular that I'm aware of that even gets the subject's own mind to fill in the blanks, almost like the way phoney psychics make vague suggestions and get their clients to provide the details. Using that I'd be able to walk in as you see me, and they wouldn't suspect a thing. People with mild amounts of mental training can dispel the illusion, but I honestly don't foresee that being a problem. Once I'm in, I'll demand a full inspection of the base. Hidden cameras or microphones can broadcast everything back to you. You'll get your layout of the base, and probably some pretty damning evidence besides."

"Good plan." Robin said.

"I don't have all the materials for the spell, but I know where I can get them. It's unlikely I'll be ready to go until two days from now."

Cyborg had led them to a small room with a table and a bed. He dumped the books he was carrying on the table, as did Raven hers, although with slightly more care.

"You don't seem like the type to have friends around often, yet you have rather a large number of spare rooms." Robin said. "Any reason for that?"

"Scientists are famous for pulling all-nighters," Cyborg replied. "I think these were the rooms they crashed in when they finally needed sleep."

"Well, they're certainly coming in handy now. I think it's time we put them in use. Good night, both of you." Raven and Cyborg watched as Robin left the room, crossing the corridor and going in the one opposite. After the door closed, Raven turned to Cyborg.

"I bet you he sleeps in the mask," she said.

"I could use the security cameras to find out, but that would unethical," he replied, a twinkle in his eye.

"Oh yes. Very unethical."

* * *

Later that day, after returning from a visit to the local magical materials supplier, Raven was a little surprised to be invited to a friendly game of hide and seek. She was even more surprised when she accepted.

It wasn't like she had anything better to do, she rationalised, as she teleported for the umpteenth time across the Tower just as she was about to be discovered.

* * *

Raven was not quite sure how Robin had managed to procure a limousine, nor exactly how they would have explained to any police that stopped them just what business Cyborg had in driving it. It was a relief, then, that this proved unimportant, as the police did not stop them.

The limo slowed to a halt in front of the main gate into the Raincoat facility. One of the guards stepped towards them and Cyborg pressed a button to roll the window down. Moment of truth.

The guard peered into the car, taking in the half-robot teen driver, and the two costumed teens in the back. There was a slight risk coming in undisguised, but if the spell worked like it was supposed to, it wouldn't matter. If it didn't, no disguise would get them where they wanted to go.

"State your name and business."

Cyborg picked up a sheaf of papers on the passenger seat and handed them to the guard, even as Raven pushed the spell onto what she knew would be the first of many victims. If it worked.

"Miss Raven is here to inspect the facility and evaluate the progress of all current projects." Cyborg said.

The papers had very little written on them, but it was hoped that the guard would interpret them as giving the proper orders and clearance for a surprise inspection. The way his eyes widened as he read on indicated that it was working.

"Open the gate!" He shouted to the man inside the guardhouse. "And alert the project manager!"

Cyborg took the papers back and placed them on the seat beside him.

"I do apologise, Ma'am, if everything is not entirely up to scratch. We were not informed that you were to be arriving." The guard said as he nervously watched the gate open slowly.

"I believe," Raven said, "That that is the purpose of a _surprise_ inspection."

The guard visibly paled.

"Yes Ma'am. Of course Ma'am."

He looked entirely too happy to be able to wave them through the now open gate. Cyborg followed the road and pulled up just outside the main entrance, which was part of the administration building. Still acting the chauffeur, he got out of the car to open the door for her. She stepped out, thanking him, and looked up to examine the building. It wasn't very interesting.

Cyborg got back into the limo and drove it on, parking it not far from the entrance. He and Robin would remain inside, watching what was happening via a hidden camera in the broach that tied her cloak.

The front door burst open and a man in a suit came striding out, being tailed by four armed guards. The man was tall, with previously dark hair that was now greying. He seemed most displeased.

"What do you think—" he began, but was interrupted by Raven.

"Mr Jamieson, I'm pleased to finally meet you. The other executives have told me of your great ability to organise and run this installation, I hope you can live up to their tales." She offered her hand to him, all the while pressing her mind upon his. He was the one that really mattered. Mr Frank Jamieson was the project manager at the facility, effectively the guy in charge, and if he could be convinced then everyone else should follow suit, mind control or not.

A look of confusion passed over his face, quickly replaced by embarrassment. He reached out and shook her hand.

"Miss Raven," he managed to stammer out. "What do you think…of the building?" She turned to examine the building once again, pretending not to notice his rather blatant cover up.

"It certainly fulfils its outward purpose," she responded. "Shall we go inside?"

He guided her in, and she found the time to imprint all of the guards as well, as a safety precaution. She was stopped at reception in order to pick up an ID badge, but from that point on she was effectively a tourist being shown every minute detail for an excruciating length of time, starting with the administration building. They were working their way up the floors, and half-way up she developed a headache from the strain of maintaining the illusion, but she pushed it to the back of her mind.

She had been shown the entire admin building and was riding the elevator back to the ground floor when Jamieson's monotonous stream of information was interrupted by his cell phone ringing. He apologised, and answered.

"What is it?" A pause. "Just now?" Pause. "What do you recommend?" A longer pause, during which he glanced towards Raven. She shifted her weight, beginning to feel uncomfortable. Had her cover failed? "No, I'll do it." Pause. "I'll be there in five minutes." He hung up, not bothering to say goodbye, and turned towards her again.

"It seems we have a situation," he said. "We've detected an alien spacecraft entering the atmosphere, and it looks as if it's going to crash. Nearby. If we're lucky we'll be able to get some more subjects. I'm going to lead four units out to the crash site, and hopefully we can bring something back in with us."

The elevator doors opened and he strode out into the hall.

"Hopkins," he said to one of the four guards that had been escorting them. "Continue to guide Miss Raven through the rest of the Upper Levels. Show her the holding cells, but go no further. Once she has seen them, please take her safely back to my office." The guard nodded a yes sir, and Jamieson addressed Raven once more. "I apologise for this interruption, but I am needed elsewhere. I hope you don't mind me reserving the honour of showing you the Lower Levels for myself."

"Not at all," she said, only managing to smile because she was finally getting rid of him.

The guards led her through to the new part of the building, the extension that was the only visible sign of the work carried out last year. Hopkins had obviously never had to perform such a task before, and as such he merely took her into the rooms and told her what they were used for, rather than giving the entire history of each particular square foot dating back to the late eighteen hundreds, as Jamieson was fond of doing. Raven was grateful for the reprieve. She made a point of asking some of the scientists at their workstations what they were working on, but this seemed to be where the legitimate research was carried out.

At the end of the main corridor that ran through the length of the extension was a set of double doors. The guards brought her to these last, and when she was led through them she saw only another set of doors. However, the new set had no less than eight men guarding them.

The holding cells.

* * *

AN: And there we have chapter 3, the Raven chapter. I was quite surprised by the relationship between Cyborg and Raven, it managed to sneak in when I was looking the other way. Looking back, though, it'll probably be a better grounding for their friendship than "Car Trouble" was.

Next up: Beast Boy, or Starfire? YOU DECIDE!

That's a total lie. I've already decided what's next.


	4. Beautiful Green Beast

AN: I don't care if the chapter title bears only a passing resemblance to the plot, it a Rock Lee reference, dammit!

* * *

One, two, three, turn. One, two, turn. One, two, three, turn. One, two, turn. Thirty eight. 

One, two, three, turn. One, two, turn. One, two, three, turn. One, two, turn. Thirty nine.

One, two, three-

"WOULD YOU CUT THAT OUT?!"

Beast Boy jumped so high, he nearly hit his head off of the ceiling. Which would have been a considerable achievement, what with the ceiling being at least three feet above him. Probably closer to four.

"Dude, you nearly gave me a heart attack! What's your problem?" he asked.

"You, loudly counting out each step, turn, and completed circuit of the four foot by five foot cell you are pacing in. After you unjustly complained about me quietly singing 'A Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall'."

"Singing? You call that _singing_?"

"Hah! At least it was better than your rendition of 'The Song that Never Ends'! Does the phrase 'like torturing a cat' mean anything to you?"

The person Beast Boy was bickering with was occupying the cell directly opposite him. He was older than Beast Boy was, and taller, and had short, spiky black hair. His skin was pale almost to the point of being white but it also had a slightly bluish tinge. He wore a tight blood red t-shirt with long sleeves finishing just past his elbows, and a pair of black jeans, and on the t-shirt was a symbol like an upside-down y, coloured blue.

"Now, now, boys." Said a girl's voice coming from the cell on Beast Boy's left. "Play nice."

The cells that they were occupying consisted of three blank white walls, and one glass wall. The ceiling seemed to glow uniformly with a white light, and it seemed that this light was connected with the loss of powers of anyone inside the cell. For most of the day the cells would be completely featureless, with not even a piece of furniture to their name. Once in the morning and once in the evening a slot would open and a plate of food would be revealed. In the evening, part of the side wall folded down to form a bed. At periodic intervals during the day, a door would open in the back wall revealing a toilet and a shower. If this room was in use the glass wall would cloud over, leaving some measure of privacy, although no one doubted they could still be seen on camera.

Of course, they really had no idea if it was day or night, but there didn't seem to be any reason to debate the matter. The lights stayed on all the same.

From one cell, the opposite three cells could be easily seen. Reflected in the opposite glass could also be seen the adjacent cells. This made it relatively easy to converse with the people in the five cells around the central one, but beyond that, communication had to be passed on.

The girl in the cell to Beast Boy's left had the superhero handle Solenoid, although she was in civilian clothing; apparently she was visiting the States from the UK, and was grabbed when taking pictures of Jump's biggest tourist attraction (the T shaped tower). He could only see her by the reflection, but she looked to be in her mid-teens, with long brown hair and wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

Immediately to his right, the cell was occupied by a quiet boy of about the same age and height as Beast Boy. He wasn't even aware he was a metahuman and didn't have a superhero name, so he didn't feel self-conscious about giving his real one, Sean. He had been picked up coming home from school one day, and was shocked to find out he was a meta. He still didn't know what it was he was supposed to be able to do. He was fairly quiet, and mostly kept himself to himself.

Across and to the left was a girl who called herself Legend. She was very odd. She looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, but when asked, claimed to be no older than four. Her mental age seemed to be about six. She had short black hair, and was wearing a black polo neck sweater and a pair of red jeans. When she was first brought in she spent most of the day crying for her mother, but after that mostly concerned herself with talking to a little stuffed bear she had somehow managed to keep a hold of. He seemed to be called Scruff.

The cell opposite and to the right was currently empty. Directly opposite, the person Beast Boy had been arguing with, was called Coatl. Which reminded him…

"Oh, I've got a couple more ideas for nicknames!"

"You mean you haven't given up and called it quits already?" Coatl groaned.

"Serves you right for having a name so difficult to pronounce." Beast Boy responded. He'd been attempting to find a good nickname for Coatl since he'd arrived, and had had an influx of ideas after Coatl had explained to him that his name meant 'snake' in nahuatl.

"So, I suggested 'Solid' already…" he said.

"Yes, and 'Liquid', but not 'Gas'. Instead you skipped to 'Solidus'. Whatever sense that makes." Coatl replied.

"Ask Hideo Kojima. Anyway, I tried Solid, I tried…I tried Plissken, but you didn't like that one either. Listing types of snakes wasn't working. I thought of Jormun…Jormunga…"

"Jormungandr."

"Yeah, that. But I can't say that either. You didn't particularly like the Medusa suggestion, or Nagini, but how was I supposed to know they were girls?"

"How did you know they were related to snakes, and yet not that they were female?" Coatl asked, exasperated.

"I asked one of the guards to look snakes up on the internet. You didn't think I'd actually heard of German gender, did you?"

"Jormungandr."

"Whatever, Coat boy."

"_Coatl._"

"Boys!" Solenoid inserted again.

Someone giggled, and they realised it was Legend.

"Scruff thinks you should be called Grey. No one else has grey skin."

"Grey?" Coatl said. "That's actually not…"

He was interrupted by the familiar sound of the main door opening.

There were two doors into the area where the holding cells were, one at each end of the long corridor. At one end was the main door, or at least what everyone assumed was the main door – no one had ever gone through it, but a number of armed guards were visible from the cells closest to it. At the other end was an elevator.

When people were first captured they would be brought in by the elevator. At the start of each day, not long after the first plate of food had been put out, a number of the cells would be gassed and once the occupiers were sufficiently under control the light would go off, and doctors escorted by guards would lift the chosen few onto gurneys, and take them into the elevator. Most people had passed out by then, but a few had clung to consciousness long enough to know that the elevator went down, not up.

Towards the end of the day, most of them would be returned to their cells, none the wiser for their little jaunt downstairs. Some people didn't come back though. Usually there was at least one in each group, sometimes more, sometimes less. Today's group hadn't been returned yet.

It wouldn't be them, because they would be brought in by the elevator. Occasionally the main door would be opened to allow a group of people in a hurry to pass through, but mostly it was only opened for Jamieson to 'inspect the stock'. The prisoners had long since stopped caring about his little visits and mostly just carried on with whatever it was they were doing, which was why now it was odd that the low murmur of conversation coming from the direction of the main door was slowly dying out.

Beast Boy's cell was closer to the main door than to the elevator, so he didn't have long to wait to see what all the fuss was about. A girl with purple hair, pale grey skin, and wearing a black leotard covered by a blue cloak, was being guided down the corridor by six armed guards.

"Scruff says never mind." Legend said to Coatl when she caught sight of the stranger.

The strange girl was walking slowly down the corridor, taking her time to examine each person carefully. Beast Boy thought he saw a strange look pass between her and Coatl, but he couldn't be sure, and then she had moved on. Coatl watched her go. When she had moved far enough away, Beast Boy spoke up.

"What the hell was that all about? Who was that girl? What was she doing here? Do you know her?"

Coatl stared after her for a moment.

"She's the girl I came here to find," he said, eventually.

Beast Boy had been in the cell for five days. Five agonizingly long, terribly boring days (only one of which he had spent unconscious after being gassed in the morning). Coatl had been there when he arrived, and they had had quite a bit of time to get to know each other. Coatl claimed to be a half-demon (or three-quarters demon or something – his family's names were as difficult to pronounce as his own, and Beast Boy's eyes had glazed over almost immediately) despite the lack of horns and a tail. He had travelled to this dimension in place of his father, who wished to make an offer to another half-demon that happened to be living in Jump City. Apparently, Coatl had arrived right in front of one of Raincoat's teams who had wasted no time in pumping him full of tranquilizers. Being half-demon seemed to amp up the immune system but Coatl was still hopelessly outnumbered and was eventually taken prisoner.

That was about three weeks ago. Coatl thought that whatever it was that the scientists were doing to them, they couldn't figure out his half-demon blood, because people didn't usually last for more than a week before they disappeared. They'd heard there was another person further down the corridor that was coming up on two weeks and seemed to be half-demon as well, but doubt was cast on this after they learned he had named himself after an angel, Metatron.

The sound of footsteps approaching indicated that the girl and the guards were on their way back, moving quickly this time and without glancing to either side. Beast Boy watched her go.

"So what do you think— Coatl? What's up?" The half-demon was looking dazed, leaning on the wall beside him to prevent himself from falling. He shook himself, and then straightened.

"So that's how she's doing it…" he said.

"Doing what?" Beast Boy asked.

"But how could she maintain it? Unless she chooses who to use it on, and only has to keep it up for those few. Which explains why I didn't see it the first time…"

"Coatl, doing what?" Beast Boy was starting to get impatient.

"Even still, to maintain it for any length of time would be a severe drain. She really must be powerful. Then again, daughter of Trigon and all that…"

"DOING WHAT?!"

Beast Boy's explosion pulled Coatl's attention away from his monologue, only then seeming to notice that the others will listening to him.

"Hmm?"

"Argh!" Beast Boy shouted, preparing an eloquent (albeit verbose) rant about why people should listen, but he was interrupted before he could begin by Solenoid once again defusing the situation.

"Coatl, would you mind enlightening the rest of us as to whatever wonderful revelations you've had? I'm afraid the anticipation will kill us before long."

"What she said," Beast Boy added.

"Sorry guys. As Raven – that's her name, by the way – as she walked past the second time, I didn't see a girl with purple hair and a blue cloak, but instead a woman wearing a business suit and a much less original hair colour. She must have cast a spell to make the guards think she's part of Raincoat. If she's going about under cover, that means she's working against them, and that can only mean good things for us."

"Are you sure?" It was Sean who asked, speaking for the first time in a while. Before Coatl had a chance to respond, however, a shout went up along the corridor.

"Roll call! Roll call!"

Almost as one, they turned to look at the empty cell opposite Sean, and it was he who spoke.

"Maybe he's just been moved."

Occasionally, when those taken in the morning were returned, the guards would place them in a different cell. No one knew if they did this for a reason or by accident, but it didn't seem to make much difference. To keep track of who was still in the cells, they would do a roll call at the end of each day, immediately after the prisoners had been returned.

If it had been called, that meant that the prisoners had been returned, and the cell was still empty. The previous occupant, Soul, had been taken that morning after only having arrived the day before. It was unusual for people to disappear so quickly, but not without precedent.

Whoever had Called first, who ever had first shouted 'roll call', would pass their name to the cell on the left, who would pass it on left, and so on, until the last person in the row would pass it across. It would then come back down the opposite side and cross again, before returning to it's owner, like an elaborate game of Chinese whispers (or in this case, shouting). When the person had heard their name come back to them, they would tell the person on their left, who would start passing their own name along. It would go on like this until everyone's name had circuited the room, and the roll call was over.

Conversations stopped once again as the names were passed up and down, and Beast Boy breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Soul's name going around. He had just been moved after all. Eventually it was passed along that the call was over.

"Karen? Karen, are you there? Has anyone seen Karen?" Beast Boy heard someone calling further down the corridor. There really wasn't any chance that the roll call would have missed her, but everyone passed on the message anyway.

"Nineteen." Coatl said. "We lost two today. That Karen would have been one, I don't recall the other. Dammit, I hope help comes soon."

It was at that exact moment that the lights went out. Not the fluorescent lighting in the corridor, but the intensely white lights that were the ceiling in every chamber.

Stunned silence descended upon the cells. It was a few seconds before Beast Boy had recovered enough to reach out and attempt to use his powers, but that was more than enough time for the glass doors to slide open of their own accord.

He cautiously stepped outside of his cell, joining the others in the corridor as they looked around in confusion.

"Um…" he started, but stopped when he heard the main door opening. He turned and watched in awe as two figures entered the room.

"I told you we didn't need to attack the guards," the shorter was saying to the taller. "It would only have drawn more attention to us."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. No need to rub it in. Besides, we still don't know what Raven was trying to tell us before you cut her off."

"Dudes!" Beast Boy said to those around him. "That's Robin!"

Other such whispers were being passed back and forth, and it seemed to catch the attention of the new arrivals.

"Yes, I'm Robin." The boy in question said. "And this is Cyborg. We're here to rescue you."

The door slid closed behind them.

"That wasn't supposed to happen." Robin said, a look of worry on his face.

"Oh crap."

Pouring in from air ducts on either side of the door was a cloudy gas.

"They must have had some sort of fail safe in place in case all the cells were opened at the same time. A special code required to be input within thirty seconds, or…this. That must have been what Raven was trying to tell us."

As Robin spoke, he had turned to the controls for the door, pulling the panel off and poking around at the wires. After a few second he threw the panel away in frustration.

"I can't open it in time," he said, and then raised his voice. "Is there any other way out of here?"

"Can't you just blast through it?" someone shouted from the crowd.

"This place was designed to hold metahumans. We won't be able to break through in time, and even if we did, there's another one just as thick no more than two metres away. _Is there any other way out of here?_"

"The elevator!"

The crowd parted to let Robin past, and followed him to the other door at the far end of the corridor and watched as he repeated the process of pulling the cover from the controls and examining the wiring. This time however, instead of throwing the cover away, he elected to kick the door.

"Dammit!"

He spun away in disgust, but stopped short as a black shadow rose up in front of him. Raven stepped from it and moved quickly towards the door.

"Why do I seem to be doing all the work on this mission?" she muttered, as she carefully replaced the panel covering and punched in a code. The elevator doors opened.

At which point the next problem became clear: twenty two people could not fit inside it. A sign on the inside wall said the maximum load was fifteen people, but even that would be a tight fit.

"Anyone who can hold their breath or has some other such talent, stay here. Everyone else, inside."

Beast Boy held back, and noticed Coatl and Legend amongst the others who were doing the same.

"Cyborg, you go with the first group. Keep them all together while you wait for us."

Cyborg complied, stepping into the elevator and pushing the button for the lower levels. Then, impatient, he repeatedly tapped the button to close the doors until they had done so.

Once the doors were closed, a boy with mahogany coloured hair and a green jeans-and-jacket outfit spoke.

"I can't stop it completely, but I can buy us some time," he said, even as his body dispersed into green gas. The gas moved to create a wall across the corridor, but it had to spread itself thin to do so, and as such was not completely effectual.

"I don't need much oxygen," Beast Boy contributed, as he shrank down to a rat.

Robin didn't say a word, but pulled a gas mask from his belt and pressed it over his face.

"Mr Scruff doesn't need to breathe." Legend said, as if that explained everything.

Raven, Coatl, and a boy with gold highlights running through spiky black hair were assessing each other.

"I thought half-demons were supposed to be rare in this dimension." Raven said.

"Are you Metatron?" Coatl asked the other boy.

"Yep."

"Isn't that a little…"

"Pretentious?" Metatron interjected.

"I was going to say ironic." Coatl replied.

"I suppose it's that, too."

They returned to silence, waiting for the elevator to return, conserving their oxygen. A clunking noise had indicated it was on its way back up when the green gas reformed into the red-haired boy, who collapsed to one knee panting.

"Sorry…couldn't hold it longer…powers are weak…"

Robin rushed forward, placing his small gas mask over the other boy's mouth. They all backed up against the door, trying to get as far away from the gas as possible. By this point it was pretty much impossible though, and all they could do was hold their breath, literally as well as figuratively.

After what seemed like eternity the doors opened behind them and they all stumbled into the elevator, Beast Boy returning to human form and reaching for the down button. He imitated Cyborg's action of repeatedly pressing the button, the doors closing in agonising slow motion. But close they did.

Robin and the gas boy were in the worst shape, panting heavily and leaning on the elevator walls. The rest were not that far behind them but at least were able to stand without support. Most of the elevator ride was spent recovering their breath.

"What's…your name?" Robin asked the boy with the green outfit.

"Phaesim." He replied, pushing himself upright once more.

"Thank you, Phaeism." Robin said.

"It's a good thing Cyborg thinks computer hacking is part of an essential introduction to earth culture, otherwise you'd all have been stuck in there." Raven said.

"Did you get time to look at anything else?"

"Not much. Looks like most of the experiments were an attempt to create a virus that would be passed on from metahuman to metahuman by touch, but the diversity of the DNA was giving them problems. A virus that would effect some would have no effect on others. It was pretty heavily stressed that the final product needed to work on all of them. Whatever they were planning on doing, they wanted rid of all of the metas at the same time. And one other thing: the only time they had adult subjects was in the first couple of weeks. Since then, it's just been teenagers."

"Did you send off the information as I told you?"

The elevator doors opened, and they all walked out into an empty corridor.

"I did it just before I teleported down. But in order to teleport, I had to drop the illusion. Their memories will remain the same, but if the see us now, they'll see us as we are. I used the last of my energy to teleport in."

Robin sighed.

"Well, I suppose there's nothing we can do about that."

"Actually…" Coatl interrupted, "I can transfer some of my energy. I don't really do anything other than throw energy balls anyway, teleportation would be much more useful right now."

Raven hesitated, and then nodded. Coatl closed his eyes and concentrated, stretching out his hand and forming a tiny ball of energy in his palm. He opened his eyes as the ball rolled down to the tips of his fingers, and he nudged it gently toward Raven. It hit her directly above her heart, and was slowly absorbed into her body.

"Thanks," she said.

"I'd have given you more but I don't seem to be as strong as usual." He replied.

"I noticed that too." Phaeism said. "Although now that I think about it, I feel a bit stronger now than I did before."

"It's probably just a side effect of whatever was suppressing your powers," Robin reasoned. "Your strength will come back gradually. We should move on, find where Cyborg has decided to hole up."

Beast Boy quickly moved to catch up with Robin.

"Mr Robin sir, can I just say what an honour it is to meet you. I'm…"

"Beast Boy, right?"

Beast Boy's chest swelled with pride. Robin – _the_ Robin – knew who he was.

"Aren't you supposed to be with the Doom Patrol?"

"I used to be, but Mento refused to promote me from Team Mascot to Sidekick. He said it was because I wasn't ready, but I think he just didn't want to give me more pocket money. So I decided to go solo and prove that his excuse was just a load of bull."

"And how long ago was that?" Robin enquired.

"About a week ago. I came to Jump to be the superhero here, but the first crime I tried to stop didn't exactly go as planned. There was a girl being attacked by a group of soldiers, so I took care of them, but that's when the reinforcements arrived. There must have been hundreds of them. With weird powers too – some of them were like ninjas, or wizards, or some strange combination of the two, and there was a bear with lasers – lasers! – shooting out of its eyes. Also, there may or may not have been a siege weapon."

"Are you sure that wasn't just a hallucination brought on by the tranquilizers?"

Before Beast Boy could respond, a door opened up just ahead of them and Cyborg poked his head out.

"In here, guys!"

They hurried forward, and entered the room, which appeared to be used for storage. Beast Boy spotted an item on the floor.

"My belt!"

He grabbed it, and checked to make sure all the items were still attached.

"Lock pick, check. Hey Robin, you'll have to teach me how to use that. Doom Patrol communicator, check. Superhero Spotters Checklist, check – I'll have to remember and mark Robin off. I wonder if he'll introduce me to Batman. Okay, it's all here!"

The others were grabbing their own items and checking them before putting them on. Mostly it was utility belts or masks, the occasional set of armour and weapons.

"So, where next?" Beast Boy asked.

"There should be another way out of here." Raven said. "I caught a glimpse of a floor plan, but I didn't get time to study it."

"Can you teleport us out?" Robin asked.

"No, I haven't got nearly enough energy for that."

"Then we look for the exit. Is everyone ready?"

"I'm missing some important stuff!" Legend said, frantically searching the pockets of a long black jacket she had found. "No, wait…here it is!" She pulled out a pair of goggles and a stupidly large lollypop, placing the goggles on her forehead, and the lollypop in her mouth.

"Okay…" Robin said. "Before we go, I'm going to need names, and powers."

"Roll call," said a boy in ordinary clothing, a small smile on his face.

"Roll call," the others echoed.

"My name is Zach," the boy said. "I don't know what powers I'm supposed to have." He turned to look at the person on his left.

"Slyde, I can control friction."

"I'm Solenoid, I have short ranged telekinesis."

"Fever, I'm a pyromani— er, pyrokinetic." A girl in a yellow outfit beneath a red cape.

"Phaeism, I can become gas."

"I can't tell you my name because I'm not supposed to talk to strangers, but I'm strong." Legend said.

"You're strong?"

"I'm _super_ strong. And this is Mr Scruff. He's a teddy bear. He doesn't have powers, so I have to protect him."

"Beast Boy, animal shape shifter." He said, grinning.

"Metatron, I throw energy balls and have improved speed and agility."

"Sean, I don't know my powers."

"Fiona, no powers."

"Leo Knight, electrokinesis." He was wearing armour that gave him the appearance of a lion.

"Coatl, energy balls and strength."

"I haven't picked a superhero name yet, but I'm invulnerable." A boy in ordinary clothes again.

"Bullet, as in faster than," a girl said grinning. She wore a black costume with a white lightening bolt around the waist.

"Neuroa, telepath." She was wearing a grey hooded robe.

"Photon, I control light." Another girl, with a blue and yellow costume.

"Soul, I can heal."

"Meteorion, energy _discs_." A girl said, emphasizing the difference. She was in ordinary clothes.

The last person before they had gone full circle back to Zach was a boy wearing a black trench coat jacket and beneath that a blue shirt with faded jeans.

"My name is Bloodborne, and I can use other people's powers…by drinking their blood."

There was a silence after that, a silence Beast Boy felt he was honour-bound to break.

"Okay, firstly, _ew_, and secondly, how the hell did you figure out that was your power?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Bloodborne replied.

Robin took charge again.

"Okay, we're going to head out, but I want everyone to move in an organised way. The three of you without powers – Zach, Sean, Fiona – you'll stay in the centre of the group. No Name, you will now be called Human Shield. If anything goes near those three, your job is to stand between it and them. Surrounding that group I want everyone without offensive powers. Then anyone with a long range attack. Finally, short range attacks. I'll lead the way, Cyborg will be at the rear. Any questions?"

Silence.

"Okay, move out."

That's when they heard the scream.

* * *

AN: Ahhhhhhhh! Chapter 4 is over, the longest chapter yet, and the most fun to write. Possibly because there was proper conversations happening instead of infodumping backstory. But never fear, the infodump will return next chapter! 

Speaking of Chapter 5, no prizes for guessing who it's about. I realised the other day that I don't actually know what Starfire's backstory is - the others were all planned out years ago, but I kept skipping passed her. I'm still not entirely sure it's going to go, but I guess I'll find out when I write it. A tentative next week estimate for time of arrival.

Also, thanks to these people for lending me their characters, as without them I'd have had even greater pains generating all nineteen inmates:

Jedi-And, who Legend and Mr Scruff belong to.

Prisionero, who is the creator of Metatron.

Chaltab, for his character Phaeism.

ShiningAsta, to whom both Leo Knight and his not-yet introduced sister Karen belong.

And Mightierdandasword, who loaned his character Slyde.


	5. Go!

AN: Hi!

So, you see, it seems that I can only actually write stuff if there's a christmas tree in the room. Odd, huh? Let's see if I can get this story finished in the next couple of weeks.

UPDATE: I didn't realise were editing out my scene breaks. Why do they do that, anyway?

* * *

The Princess of the Tamaraneans tugged hopelessly at the heavy metal restraints that completely encased her hands, to no avail. 

Hopeless. That pretty much summed it up.

She lifted her arms to her face, using the restraints to knock her crown to the floor. It was ex-Princess now, anyway. Citadelian Slave would be her new status (if it could be said to be a status at all), but that's not what they'd call her. They'd call her Troq. Technically it meant the same thing, but it was the difference between calling someone a female dog and calling them a bitch. The subtle nuances of language were odd, particularly on a galactic scale. As the heir to the throne, Koriand'r had been taught all twelve galactic standard languages, even though she only had the physical capability to speak nine of them. Most of them were the languages of the main species that inhabited the galaxy, one created specifically to be a 'Galactic Standard' language although that idea never really took off, and the odd one out, English. Apparently it originated in a small country on a backwater planet, on the very fringes of the galaxy. The inhabitants hadn't even explored their own star system yet, never mind the galaxy, so no one could quite figure out why it had a place in the galactic standard. But it was, so she knew it. A couple of the languages were now largely defunct as the races that spawned them had been destroyed, either by war or by nature.

There was always a war going on in the galaxy. Of the nine species currently considered to be superpowers, only three of them were not at war with anyone. Some of the other six were at war with most of the other five.

Koriand'r then realised that those numbers weren't quite true. The newly formed peace treaty between the Tamaraneans and the Gordanians, the one that had changed her life forever, meant that the Gordanians were no longer at war with anyone. The Tamaraneans, however, would still be at war with the Blacktrinians. But then, when weren't they?

She kicked out at the force-field that blocked her exit. Her royal blood meant she could not be dumped in the usual cells used for prisoner transport, oh no, they had to take extra special care of her. As soon as the transfer was made they had clamped the shackles on her, effectively neutralising her powers. On top of that, they had quickly shepherded her into a closet-sized container, immediately activating the force-field that covered the entrance. Then they had placed it in the centre of the bridge.

So she would have a nice view, they said.

Because they feared her, they meant.

Which wasn't without cause, she had to admit. If they had placed her in the normal cells she would have broken out as soon as possible, shackles or no. But this damn force field took that option away from her. There was nothing she could do.

She leaned against the back wall and slid down to the floor, burying her head in her arms. She was suppose to marry a dashing Prince, ascend the throne of Tamaran, rule wisely and justly, smiting all those who compromised their peace. Not…this. Not slavery. Not a life of degradation and humiliation, far from home and safety and loved ones. Her instincts cried out for her to fight back, defeat her captors and win her freedom.

But she couldn't. They had her well wrapped up in her little box, a nice present for the Citadel. The despair welled inside of her.

Something impacted on one of the walls and she jumped, eyes wildly looking for the source.

"Just making sure you're still alive," one of the guards snarled in his native tongue, a lecherous grin on his face. "Wouldn't want to lose you before we made it home."

She glared at him.

At that moment the entire spaceship shook, warning lights flashing and klaxons sounding mere moments later.

"What the hell was that?!" the captain shouted, striding into view to take up a position directly in front of Koriand'r, although facing away from her.

"Sir, we're being hailed," one of the others said. The captain nodded, and the main screen turned on. Koriand'r heard a gasp as the visuals came through, but there were too many bodies between her and the screen for her to see.

"Greetings, Gordanian vessel!" They used Galactic Standard tongue. No clues there, then. "We have fired a warning shot. Would you mind telling us what you are doing in Blacktrinian territory without proper clearance?"

Suddenly, Koriand'r knew what the cause for alarm was. Blacktrinians were often called Black Holes by the other star faring races, partly because of their abilities to cause mass destruction, but mostly because of a well known fact: craft that entered Blacktrinian space without authorisation were never seen again.

"With all due respect, section 141.6 of the delta quadrant is Gordanian territory, not Blacktrinian," the Captain responded.

"As of roughly twenty minutes ago, sections 141.1 through 141.7 passed over to Blacktrinian control. Official verification follows."

The captain moved over to a small monitor on the desk in front of him, allowing Koriand'r her first glimpse at the main screen. Two Blacktrinian officers were visible, their blue-on-black eyes set in widely grinning pale faces more than a little disquieting.

"My most sincere apologies," the captain said as he looked up from the monitor. "We have not been in contact with other Gordanian vessels since 0930 galactic time. We were unaware of our transgression."

It seemed that every person on the bridge was holding their breath waiting for the Blacktrinian response, including Koriand'r.

"I believe you."

A huge wave of relief passed across the room.

"That's why I'm going to give you to the count of ten to get your ugly, green, scale-covered haunches out of our territory before I pump your ship full of little yellow bolts of light."

The captain swore.

"One!"

"Get us out of here, full speed!"

"Two!"

"Do it now!"

"Ten!" The mad laughter of the Blacktrinian could be heard in the background, and the ship pulled around and accelerated. Not fast enough, though. Numerous impacts rocked the ship, sending guards and captor alike flying off their feet. Koriand'r supposed she should be glad that she didn't have as far to fall, slamming into one of the walls. She took the time to brace herself against said wall, hopefully preventing a repetition.

"Situation report!" the captain bellowed, pulling himself to his feet at the console.

"The main drive took a direct hit, sir! The resultant power surge gave a massive burst of speed before it fried the circuits. We're now well outside Blacktrinian territory and moving as fast as normally possible. Unfortunately, with the main drive out, we have no way to slow down. Hull breaches were reported but have been sealed. Life support systems are currently offline."

"Get a team working on the life support, and everyone else on the main drive," he commanded. "I want our current position and probable trajectory on the main screen, now."

A couple of the Gordanians scurried away, and Koriand'r was left with a reasonable view of the screen. Shortly, an image appeared on it showing that the vessel was on its way out of the galaxy, and heading there quickly. The captain studied the screen closely for a moment.

"We'll be passing through a star system soon. We need to use the manoeuvring thrusters to change our trajectory so that we slingshot around the gas giant, leeching off momentum. That should slow us down. Get the course plotted, and call me back to the bridge when you've done so." He strode out of sight.

Koriand'r had little to do but study the image on the screen. Eight planets, with a number of smaller bodies orbiting the sun at greater distances, and an asteroid belt between the fourth and fifth planets. It looked vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn't put a name to it. The gas giant they would be using was the fifth planet, and the largest in the system.

After a thorough examination of the map she had little else to do, and time passed slowly, marked only by the creeping of the green triangle on the image growing closer to the cluster of planets. She assumed they were the green triangle. After a while, the captain returned to the bridge.

"Sir, we have finished our calculations and believe that the slingshot will be possible, but we will need to push the thrusters beyond their normal capabilities. There's a chance we may lose them," one of the other officers reported.

"Do it anyway," the captain said. Those on the bridge turned to their stations and immediately began to work. The firing of the thrusters could be heard through the hull, although inertial dampeners prevented any sense of motion being felt.

"Course correction underway," an officer needlessly announced.

As the seconds passed time seemed to slow, and everyone on the bridge could do nothing but wait. The noise of the thrusters cutting in and out was all that filled the silence.

"Course correction complete in five…four…three…two…one…." The thrusters could be heard giving one last spurt before dying out.

The silence extended for a few more seconds.

"Get me our projected trajectory," the captain barked out.

"Yes sir!"

Some of the officers went to work at their consoles and it wasn't long before the image on the screen was updated.

The captain groaned.

While it seemed that the slingshot had successfully reduced their velocity it had also flung them head first at the third planet.

"Did we lose the thrusters?" The captain asked.

"Yes sir."

"How long before the main drive can be repaired?"

"About an hour, sir."

They had, at best, five minutes.

Koriand'r watched as her captors tried everything they could think of to change course. She was faintly amused at this turn of events; there she was, despairing about how hopeless her situation was and how she could never escape it, and before she even arrives she is given an out. Although death was not exactly the kind of escape she had envisaged.

After a few minutes of frantic action, the captain had stopped and was staring at the screen. Eventually he must have come to a decision, as he spoke again.

"Begin separation procedures for the bridge."

Koriand'r's eyes widened.

"But sir, the crew!"

"There's no time to wait for them to arrive. We have to separate. NOW!"

Gordanian spacecraft were known to have a bridge that was capable of separating from the main ship and becoming a vessel in its own right. They were not suited for interstellar travel but were quite capable of navigating to the nearest planet. It usually served as a high tech escape pod.

If they separated from the main vessel they would at least be able to manoeuvre, and even if they couldn't escape the gravity well of the planet they would be able to control the entry into the atmosphere. Most of the crew were elsewhere on the ship though, and with no thrusters at all it would be completely destroyed. But it seemed the captain was willing to live with that.

The lucky few who were on the bridge went back to work and announced the separation successful. They did what little they could to change the course of their new, smaller craft, but were unable to avoid the planet.

Koriand'r closed her eyes and once again braced herself against the walls as the ship began to shake, indicating they were entering the planet's atmosphere. The voices of the crew members were shouting back and forward but she wasn't paying attention.

"X'hal," she asked quietly, but did not pray further.

Gradually the shaking lessened but the voices of the crew were just as frantic. Something about too much speed, being hit by debris from the other vessel, and the wrong angle for entry.

She got the idea though. They were going to crash.

Even with advanced warning the impact was severe, and when they hit the ground she was thrown hard against the wall of her little box. Nothing they had been through so far compared to this – out on the bridge consoles were exploding, gas was erupting from somewhere, and various bodies were flying through the air. Not to mention the shaking. It felt like the whole world was shaking.

It went on for so long she thought it would never end, but eventually the ship was still. Apparently, she had survived. She wondered what the Blacktrinians would say if they knew what their parting shot had caused.

-x-x-x-

The Blacktrinian commander finally took his eyes off of the long range scanners and clapped his lieutenant on the shoulder.

"A fantastic shot! Managing to hit such a small planetary body at this range, simply brilliant. What's that, a three?"

"Four, sir," the lieutenant replied.

"Four under par," the commander said. He looked up at the Blacktrinian Golf league table on the back wall of the bridge, and he grinned. "That puts us straight to the top!"

-x-x-x-

Koriand'r opened her eyes and looked out onto the damaged remains of what had once been the bridge. The lights were out and only occasional sparks lit the room, but there was one thing she knew for sure: the force field was still up.

"AHHHHHH!" she screamed in rage, throwing her body against the unyielding light. Hit by Blacktrinian weapons fire, slinging around a gas giant, crashing into a planet – and the damn thing still wouldn't let her out?!

She crashed back against the wall, panting for breath. It obviously must be on some kind of private power supply, otherwise it would have gone out with the lights. There was nothing she could do about it.

In the occasional sparks of light from damaged consoles, she could see the prone forms of various Gordanians. None of them were moving. There had been about eight on the bridge when it separated and she would be surprised if at least one of them hadn't survived, but none of them were currently conscious.

Koriand'r sighed and sat down, resigned to waiting.

She was surprised when, only a few minutes later, a loud screeching noise preceded a shaft of light beaming into the room. She couldn't see where the light was coming from but the sound of strange voices filtered through to her, and she realised that help had arrived.

She was yet more surprised to discover that the voices were not as strange as she was expecting. The language they were speaking was familiar to her. The image of the star system resurfaced and she was finally able to recognise it – this was the out of the way, backwater system that the language known as English had come from. Why fate had chosen to put her on this one planet in a million where there were not only people but ones she could communicate with, she did not dare to guess. Suddenly life was getting a lot brighter.

These thoughts were accompanied by the shaft of light widening, and then being occluded by the shadow of a being. It seemed to be a biped like her but was covered in strange clothing from head to toe, disguising the rest of its appearance. It moved swiftly into the room and started investigating, a long metallic object in its hands providing light.

"Greetings," she said quietly, desperately wishing she had had more practice with the language. The figure spun around to face her, the light shining in her eyes so that she moved a hand to block it. It took a tentative step towards her.

"My name is…" and she translated it quickly, "…Starfire. I was imprisoned by these creatures and cannot escape. I mean you no harm and would be grateful of assistance. The controls for the force field should be on the panel, there." She gestured around the side of her cage.

The figure did not respond, instead moving forward and gently tapping at the force field. She worried that it could not understand her – perhaps her accent was incomprehensible to it – but then it moved to the control panel and the force field flickered off.

"Thank you so much!" She rushed of her prison, wishing that her hands were unbound so that she could hug her saviour, but then she halted. Something sharp had pricked her skin.

Looking down, she saw something that resembled a primitive dart embedded in her shoulder.

"What is…" she looked back up again, in time to see two more darts flying from the object in the figure's hands.

It wasn't just a light, it was a weapon. Righteous anger swelled up in her but before she could attack her foe her strength failed her and she stumbled, before collapsing to the ground.

"We've definitely got a live one," she heard the figure say, before she passed out.

-x-x-x-

A loud clanging noise startled her awake.

She opened her eyes to find herself in another cell. Dim light filtered in from some holes in the wall, illuminating a somewhat cramped space not much bigger than the cage she had just left. She was lying on the ground but could not stretch out, her knees bent slightly. Its ceiling was low enough that she wasn't sure she could stand up straight. What was the saying? Out of the frying pan, into the fire?

Or perhaps not. Perhaps, this time, it was out of the frying pan, into the still slightly glowing embers of what was once a fire.

The fools had locked her in an ordinary cage.

Still, they were not complete fools. They had left her hands bound by the Gordanian device. She pulled herself upright but quickly leaned back against one of the walls, her head spinning. Whatever drugs they had used on her had obviously not worn off yet. She kicked out at the door to test her current strength against it. It shuddered, but made no signs of opening.

Starfire settled back down to the ground, content to wait a while and allow her strength to return. She turned her attention to the contrivance that bound her hands. If she could only remove it, she would again have the use of her starbolts. The smooth walls of the Gordanian prison had offered no opportunities, but here there were many nuts and bolts protruding out, giving her something to work with. She found a likely spot on her handcuffs that would likely pull back to reveal the circuits beneath and hooked the corner of a bolt around it.

She spent the next half an hour working it back and forth, attempting to loosen the covering. Finally, shifted the angle and pulled on it as hard as she could. She heard a snap and the cover suddenly went flying off. Unfortunately, this meant her hands were no longer pulling on anything, and they jerked backwards to hit her in the face.

Well, at least she would…not be able to free herself. The sheet of metal she had been working on for half an hour to remove did not, as she had suspected, cover the inner workings of the handcuffs. It simply covered more metal. And on top of that, her nose was sore.

She swore loudly and violently, using several words no Princess of Tamaran should know. Her sister's influence, no doubt.

The frustration of the whole situation was bearing down on her now, and she kept up her swearing, letting it build her rage. She began thumping her covered hands against the door. She was less woozy now and she could see some dents appearing in the metal. She _would_ break through. No mere box of metal could hold Koriand'r of the Tamaraneans.

She stepped as far away from the door as she could, the awkward semi-crouch she had to adopt hampering her slightly. But she could use that too, her anger at everything she had been subjected to transformed into strength, and she flung herself with everything she had at the door that barred her exit.

And then yelped in surprise when it was thrown open a split second before she reached it. She barrelled into a mass of green and red and tumbled to the ground.

She found herself lying on top of a boy who looked roughly the same age as her, and just about as startled.

"Um…good day, sir?" she ventured.

"…Hi," he responded.

There was a slight pause where it seemed they decided not to try and kill each other, and then there were people around them helping to pull them to their feet. She found herself in a long corridor, several other doors that looked like the one she had been attempting to break down lining the walls. There seemed to be a number of other brightly clad teens with them.

"I'm Robin," the boy said. "We're currently trying to break out of here. Want to come?"

Again she felt herself wishing her hands were unbound so she could hug someone. She settled for smiling brightly instead.

"I would love to!"

He smiled back at her.

"The more, the merrier. Come on, the others are back this way. What's your name?"

"I am Starfire of the planet Tamaran. I was held prisoner by a race known as Gordanians…." She told him her story as they walked, and he introduced her to the other members of the group. They turned into a room where an even larger group of teens, and as she was being introduced to them all, the green one known as Beast Boy was telling some of the others about how they had found her.

"So I was the one brave enough to pull the door open, and she was so happy to be finally free that she came rushing out and she thought Robin was the one who rescued her so she jumped on him and she kissed him—"

"She did _not_. That did not happen. They just fell over." Coatl interrupted.

"Fell over? Then how do you explain her suddenly speaking English?"

"She might have been able to speak it – wait. Did you just insinuate that she learned English by kissing him?"

"Yeah! DNA transfer! It's the only explanation!"

"That is the single most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, and I spent five days locked up in a cell next to you."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Starfire looked past the quarrelling pair (which became a trio as Cyborg joined in, sharing his own theories on genetic memory and linguistic learning via the mingling of bodily fluids) as Robin pointed out two more people, one called Leo Knight and the other called Neuroa.

"You're sure you can't find her? Can't you try harder?" Knight's voice was tinged with desperation.

"As I am sure you are aware, our powers have still not returned to full strength. Even if they were…it seems as if something is blocking my attempts to find her."

Robin continued around the group.

"…Bloodborne, Sean, Phaeism, Fiona, Zach…um…Metatron…"

Robin was obviously taken aback by the half-demon's current behaviour.

"Oh, I missed you so much, I thought you were gone forever, my life would never be the same again! No one can love you as I love you! We will be together forever!" Metatron was professing his undying love for a ball of string, while tossing it in the air and catching it again. But as they watched he fumbled a catch and the ball went bouncing past them.

"YARN!" Metatron yelled, and dived after it.

Starfire turned to Robin, who had a somewhat bemused expression on his face.

"Was that one of your customs?"

"Not one I've ever heard of."

Robin finished the introductions and called the group to order, trying to ignore the fact that Metatron was now happily entangled in his ball of yarn.

"Okay, we really need to set off. We've wasted more time than I wanted to, we can't expect our captors to do the same. Everyone, arrange yourselves as I said before – no powers at the centre, then defensive, then long range, then short range. I have something I need to do, so I will be at the centre as well, along with our new friend. Cyborg will take my place at the front, Raven, you take Cyborg's place at the rear."

They waited a few moments for the group organise itself, and then Robin spoke again.

"Okay, people. Move out."

Everyone headed out the door and turned down the corridor where Starfire's cell had been. Robin pulled something from his belt and held his hands out to Starfire.

"Let's see if we can get those cuffs off you." He smiled at her.

She felt her eyes filling with water as she offered him her bound wrists. After the less than friendly welcome she had received from the soldier she had begun to despair again, wondering if she would find any help at all on this planet. But here was a boy who had shown her nothing but kindness, and his friends had accepted her into the group without a second thought. She wanted to hug the lot of them.

He tinkered with the device as they walked. Cyborg seemed to be making good decisions when the corridor split off into different paths, as they only met a dead end once. After about ten minutes of walking, they passed through a set of doors and emerged into a large open room. It was about the size of the gym hall, and all along the sides there were other doors, all of them closed. At one end of the room were stacks of equipment. Some of the equipment was easy to identify; there was a rather obvious weight machine sitting in the corner, a pile of weights beside it. For most of them, however, the functions remained unknown. At the other end of the room was a large set of double doors, much larger than any others.

The group had slowed to a halt once they had entered the room. Robin called Cyborg and Raven over to him.

"Any problems, Cyborg?"

"None," the older teen replied, shaking his head. "It's a bit suspicious, really. I was using a radar to scout ahead and see what corridors were dead ends, but even so, I thought we'd have at least met a few scientists down here."

"There's no sign of pursuit either," said Raven. "They might have waited for the holding cells to clear of gas, but they would have been as well to send the soldiers through with gas masks."

"That does seem suspicious, but there's nothing we can do about it." Robin turned his attention to the room they were in. "Those doors at the end look like the way out. Cyborg, see if you can get them open."

The whole group moved over to the doors as Cyborg tried the access panel. Robin was still working on removing Starfire's handcuffs.

"Nearly there," he said, smiling up at her.

"Good," Cyborg replied, "because I'm not sure how to open these doors. I might need your help."

"You need a code to open the doors," said a voice from behind them.

Robin spun around immediately, drawing his bo staff as he did so. Behind them stood a young man dressed in a red and black outfit with bright red, spiky hair.

"Do you know the code?" Robin asked.

"Yes. But to give it to you would be to allow you to escape, which I cannot do." As he said this, more people were coming out of the side doors. They were all dressed similarly to the first man. Each of them was wearing a skin tight red suit with a black stripe running from mid-thigh to mid-chest on both sides. Each suit had a high black collar, and they were all wearing black gloves and boots. There were differences however; the first man to appear was wearing a long black cape; others were clearly armoured and many were wearing masks.

When they stopped coming through the doors and arranged themselves across from Robin's group, Starfire managed to count sixteen of them. Not one looked to be over the age of twenty.

"You are Robin?" the man, who seemed to be their leader, asked.

Robin looked to be thinking furiously and it took a moment for him to respond.

"Yes."

"I am Typhoon."

At that point, Starfire heard another voice, but it seemed to be inside her head.

"_Everyone, this is Robin, via Neuroa. These guys have obviously been training together so if we're going to beat them you need to do exactly as I say without question. Human Shield, take Sean, Fiona, and Zach, as well as Starfire, and make sure nothing gets to them. Soul, I want you to hang back until someone is hurt. I need someone with good defensive AND movement abilities to stay with Soul, guard him if need be, and move him quickly to injured people."_

There was a pause and Starfire assumed people were responding.

"Karen?_Karen?!_" Leo Knight's face looked stricken as he finally spotted his sister garbed in the red and black of Raincoat, with a bird-like mask obscuring half of her face, and feathered wings furled behind her.

"I go by Zhar-Ptitsa now, brother."

"What is it with you people and unpronounceable names?" Beast Boy moaned.

Zhar-Ptitsa looked at the young boy imperiously. "It's Zhara for short," she added.

"_Slyde, you're only good for movement, not defence._"

"You don't honestly expect to beat us, do you?" Typhoon asked.

"_Okay Solenoid, you get Soul. Raven…"_

"I never plan to lose." Robin responded. Starfire was amazed that he could be planning a battle strategy and organising his team, talking to them telepathically, and at the same time convincingly carry out a conversation.

"_Okay Raven, find it as soon as possible. I want flyers in the air if you can attack from there. Everyone else, find someone you're strong against. Neuroa, hang back, try and stay close to Human Shield. Watch the fight. If anyone is in trouble, send back up. Everyone, I want non-lethal attacks only. WAIT FOR MY SIGNAL."_

The group was shuffling, as some people moved to the back and others to the front.

Typhoon had not taken his eyes off of Robin's.

"Does your…_team_…have a name?" A slight hesitation indicated how much contempt Typhoon had for the group before him.

"I guess we're the Titans." Robin replied.

"Dude, you can't just name us!" Beast Boy cried out.

"Well then, Teen Titans, I believe that makes us the Olympians."

"Titans," Robin shouted. "GO!"

* * *

AN: For a list of the authors who graciously donated their characters, see the previous chapter. Also, the Blacktrinians are kindly on loan from Jedi-And. 

Funny story: what you see here has actually been done for quite a while, but my original intention was to finish the chapter a little bit later in the story. Despite having this bit sitting on my hard drive for most of the year I didn't decide to post it until I started working on the story again and realised how long the next bit is going to be.

Expect the next chapter some time soon.


	6. Titanomachia

AN: So here we are again, my annual update of this story. It was totally not my fault that I missed it last year, as my computer was broken. to make up for it, it's extra long! This chapter is still featuring some OCs belonging to other people - see previous chapter for who belongs to what.

Only one more chapter and maybe an epilogue to go. Should be done by next year!

There might be some mild language in this chapter.

* * *

The two sides leapt at each other, a wall of red and black meeting a wall of many colours. And then the walls broke and it was no longer two separate groups, but one large, writhing mass, with energy of all shapes, sizes, and colours being tossed carelessly within. In all, it bore a remarkable resemblance to chaos.

Beast Boy was the first one off the mark, morphing into a pterodactyl as he launched himself into the air. Not far behind him was Metatron who actually seemed to sprout wings as he took off into the air as well, and began to rain balls of golden energy down on the opposition. A couple of the enemy soldiers leapt up to meet them – one of them Zhara, Leo's sister. She shot into the air straight at Beast Boy, who was surprised and unable to dodge, and slammed into him at top speed, smashing him into the ceiling. He gasped as the air was forced from his lungs. Still pinning him to the roof Zhara pulled back her first and wreathed it in flames. Desperate, Beast Boy changed to a gorilla. The excess weight caused Zhara to judder in the air, and she lost her grip on him as a sparks appeared from her armour. Slipping out of Zhara's grasp Beast Boy changed to an eagle and flew at her, his sharp claws raking the armour where he had seen the sparks, tearing open the complex electronics.

In another situation the look on Zhara's face would have been comical as whatever was powering her flight cut out and she dropped ungracefully to the floor. Beast Boy followed her down and changed back to a gorilla just before he landed. Zhara was still trying to regain her balance, leaving her vulnerable, and Beast Boy raised an arm to swing at her-

When it was caught from behind. He spun quickly to hit this new threat, but whoever it was ducked. Then Beast Boy recognised him.

"Dude, don't scare me like that!"

"Zhara's mine," Leo Knight said, his eyes glued to those of his sister.

Beast Boy looked back and forth between them for a moment. No way was he going to get between those two.

"Suit yourself."

He turned and leapt back into the air, flying over to where Metatron was fighting the other airborne soldier.

The half-demon had been having considerably less luck than Beast Boy. He'd been happily doing the whole 'raining death (well, at least moderate wounds) from above' thing when this soldier had floated up in front of him. Metatron had formed an energy ball and tossed it at him, only for it to be deflected harmlessly away, without the soldier moving.

"There's no way you can hit me," the soldier said.

Metatron formed two more energy balls, one in each hand, supercharging the energy in them to the extent that they were difficult to look at directly. He tossed first one, and then the other.

Both bounced away from his foe with apparently no effort.

"Huh," Metatron said, but that was all he had time for because suddenly the soldier was flying straight towards him. He flapped his wings and flipped backwards, bringing up his legs in a kick aimed to knock the soldier upwards. And it would have done, had it hit. But it did not. The soldier changed direction at the last moment and swerved to the side, then diving in again attempting to capitalise. His fist swung out, but was caught at the wrist, centimetres from its target. Met grinned and contorted his body, spinning around and swinging the soldier like a shot put, launching him straight at a wall, not even waiting to see if he hit it before sending more energy balls flying at him. Dust was thrown out as the soldier impacted the concrete and the energy balls disappeared into the cloud.

Then the dust settled, and the soldier was hovering in the air a couple of inches in front of the impacted wall with the energy balls still in front of him.

"Not good enough," he said, and then he thrust his arms forward, and the energy balls were heading straight at Metatron…who stood there and let them hit him. They were absorbed back into his body.

"Back atcha." Metatron grinned. "It won't work on—" and then he was cut off, as something large, heavy, and hard slammed into him from behind. He fell, managed to recover, and was then hit again, this time from the side, sending him spinning into a wall. He dug his currently-clawed hands into the wall for extra support and this time managed to see what was hitting him: two giant weights, presumably from the weight machines that could be seen in the corner.

Which put the question of exactly which superpower this soldier had beyond any doubt – telekinesis. He'd deflected away Metatron's energy balls, probably absorbed his impact into the wall, and was now flinging giant pieces of metal at him.

Met couldn't hope to beat him at range as any of his own attacks could be easily deflected while the soldier had an almost unlimited number of things to throw at him. So he would have to take the battle in close. Which was probably going to be easier said than done, because at the moment it was taking all of his concentration to just avoid said giant wheels of metallic pain. He had to jump from wall to wall, to ceiling, to floor, to wall again, trying to avoid being hit. His manoeuvrability in the air wasn't as good as his enemy's, being as it was reliant on his wings rather than telekinesis.

A weight narrowly missed his ear as landed on the ground, took two steps, and leapt for a wall again, over the heads of two more soldiers. He needed something, needed a distraction, he needed… Beast Boy to be flying in at the telekinetic from behind, right now!

He flipped in mid air, landing against the wall on his feet, pushing off again almost immediately and beating his wings at the same time to pick up more speed. Beast Boy's eagle form screeched as he flew in, and the soldier spun around in surprise. Beast Boy's claws lashed out – and then he was thrown backwards almost to the other side of the room. Metatron gave another beat of his wings, so close now, all he needed was another second…

He was a foot away from the soldier when he stopped dead in mid air. The soldier turned back around to him, slowly.

"I told you before, you won't be able to hit me. I'm too good—" the soldier was hit from below by a disc of yellow energy. Meteorion looked up and gave a jaunty salute before returning to her own battle. The distraction was all Metatron needed. With one final beat of his wings he arced upwards and then folded them back, coming down on the telekinetic from above, all four claws latching on firmly as he flipped them over and sent them spiralling towards the ground. He felt a telekinetic shove trying to pry him away, so he charged his hands with energy. He wasn't quite doing enough to form energy balls but with the zero distance between his palms and his enemy's skin, what he was doing was literally burning the soldier from within. The telekinetic push disappeared as the soldier screamed, and Metatron did one final flip to drive his leg downwards onto the soldier's chest as the soldier crashed into the ground.

Met took a moment to catch his breath before checking that the soldier was well and truly unconscious. Then he looked around him, trying to see where he was needed most.

_Coatl and Beast Boy could do with some help_, said the familiar voice of Neuroa inside his head.

Metatron raced off to see what he could do…

_Wait, lookout!_

…And was blindsided by a blast of blue energy, sending him crashing through two fighting teens and into a wall.

"Cold…" he managed to gasp out, before pushing himself to his feet, shuddering, and falling over unconscious.

"Coldstream, actually," said the Raincoat soldier that had attacked him. While he was wearing the standard outfit of his team he was also wearing a mask that covered his face and wrapped around the lower part of his head, leaving only his spiky black hair exposed. A jagged line separated the two colours of the mask, running straight down over the middle of the right eye, the smaller part being red and the larger part being black.

"Nice name," came a voice from behind him, as one of the giant weights came hurtling in his direction. Coldstream dodged to the side, tumbling on the ground and rolling to his feet again. Bloodborne was kneeling beside the fallen telekinetic, one hand outstretched, the other not far from his mouth, a couple of drops of blood still on his fingertips. "Does exactly what it says on the can. Like mine."

He moved his arm sharply and the weight flew again towards Coldstream, who again dodged.

At which point two more figures dropped out of the air, landing beside Metatron – Solenoid and Soul.

"Did he just say his name was Coldstream?" Solenoid asked as her companion began to heal the half-demon.

"Yeah, why?" Bloodborne responded.

"I think that's the name of a town in—" the girl cut off as she had to dodge backwards to avoid a blast of blue energy. "Hey, no need to get snippy, you!" she yelled at Coldstream. Then seeing that Soul had finished healing Metatron (who was slowly pushing himself to his feet) she grabbed the former under the arm and bounced off again.

"Are we finished socialising?" Coldstream asked scathingly. Bloodborne and Metatron shared a look.

"Yeah, I think so," Bloodborne replied.

"Good." Coldstream did as his name suggested and fired another blast of cold energy at the two, who sprang apart as it passed between them. But even as they moved they were returning fire, Metatron charging another energy ball and Bloodborne swinging the weight around for another attempt. Coldstream ducked and rolled backwards, using the weight to block the blast of heat energy Metatron had thrown. Bloodborne was already ripping a long strip of metal from one of the unknown machines and swinging it like a bat, trying to trap Coldstream between the two weapons. The cryokinetic simply fired a blast of energy at the weight and then dodged over it, causing the metal strip to hit it and smash the frozen metal into pieces.

Through those pieces, though, another globe of golden energy passed, and this time Coldstream's dodge wasn't quite quick enough. It caught him on the shoulder and the force of it sent him spinning around, falling to the ground. He growled deep in his throat as he pushed himself up again.

"You'll pay for that," he said to Metatron, thrusting out an arm and shooting a blast of cold at him. And then he cried out in shock and pain – he hadn't seen Bloodborne approaching, hadn't seen him grab his arm, but he had definitely felt him sinking his teeth into it. Before Coldstream could punch him for the sheer audacity of it, Bloodborne had jumped back.

"Ugh…what have you been eating?" Bloodborne gagged, wiping a small trickle of blood from the side of his mouth. "You taste _horrible._"

Coldsteam growled in pain and anger, and threw a blast of cold energy at the teen. Bloodborne lazily reached out and caught it in his free hand.

"Now your powers are my powers," Bloodborne said smugly as he swung the metal strip at Coldstream, who rolled underneath it. Metatron fired some more energy balls at him and he jumped over them, somersaulting and coming to land as a blast of cold energy arrowed in on him – and he caught it in his hand.

"It's not what you've got, it's how you use it." Coldstream redoubled the force of the energy, and again, and then sent it straight back at Bloodborne, hitting him square in the chest. Then a giant ball of golden energy slammed into Coldstream, and he barely managed to return the favour in kind before he was sent flying backwards and skidding along the floor.

Solenoid and Soul were already landing to heal Bloodborne and Metatron.

Coldstream pushed himself to his feet, clutching his chest. "You two are really beginning to annoy me."

"Shucks," the girl replied as she took up a defensive position in front of the others.

Coldstream seemed to be looking about for something, and then he spotted what he was after. Not far away Coatl and Beast Boy were surrounded by a group of six Raincoat soldiers, desperately trying to defend themselves, but being overcome by the numbers.

"Force! Shock!" Coldstream called. Two of the six looked over and then peeled off from the group. When they reached him, Coldstream pointed over at Solenoid and Soul. "They're your targets," he ordered.

"Uh oh," Solenoid said as the two nodded and ran towards her. She turned around and grabbed Soul, who had thankfully just finished what he was doing, and sprang off. The two followed.

Bloodborne, meanwhile, had had the beginnings of a plan. As soon as Metatron had regained consciousness he spoke to him.

"I saw your fight with the telekinetic and I think I have a plan," Bloodborne said.

"Good, I've decided I hate cryokinetics," Metatron responded.

"I just…I'll need to drink some of your blood." Metatron looked at him sharply and Bloodborne inwardly cringed. Other people often found his ability to be unnerving and he didn't like to use it on an ally. It freaked them out. He genuinely liked these people and didn't want to lose a possible friendship with any of them.

"You know I'm a half-demon don't you? I don't know what my blood will do to you."

Bloodborne gaped. "Uh…well, uh, I guess that's just a risk we'll have to take. Here's my plan…" or at least, there it would have been, had Coldstream not chosen that moment to interrupt with another blast of energy. They both dove to the side.

"No time! Just wing it!" Metatron said, one claw having already opened a cut on the inside of his forearm, he pushed it to his companion's mouth. Barely waiting long enough for some blood to transfer, Metatron then bent his legs for a mighty jump, straight upwards, flipping around and sinking his clawed feet into the ceiling. He hung there like a bat, watching the fight below him, hoping to figure out what Bloodborne had planned.

At that moment Bloodborne didn't really have anything planned; he was too busy trying to channel the heat that was building in his body. Borrowing powers had never caused him pain before but he could tell the moment the blood touched his lips that this was different. He just had to hope that he could last out long enough.

He stretched both of his hands out before him and began pouring all of the heat towards them, the golden energy growing to the size of a beach ball.

"Do you really expect to be able to hit me with that?" Coldstream asked. "His powers are now your powers, but I'm willing to bet his weakness is now your weakness. That was a very foolish move."

"It's not what you've got…" Bloodborne gasped out, even as Coldstream's hand pulled back for one more blast of energy, even as, thank god, Metatron dropped down behind him, having understood the plan, grabbed both the attacking arm and the other one and wrenched them behind his back, and intoned along with Bloodborne "…it's how you use it."

Bloodborne tossed the energy ball straight at the pair. Coldstream struggled but Metatron was too strong for him and had his arms locked too well. The energy ball hit them both head on and glowed brilliantly as it impacted. When his sight had cleared, Bloodborne could see Coldstream hanging limply from the arms of a completely unharmed Metatron.

Then Bloodborne collapsed.

This time help wasn't coming. Soul was still being dragged around by Solenoid, who was still trying to deal with the two that Coldstream had set upon on them. Metatron dropped the cryokinetic and moved to his fallen companion who was lying shuddering on the floor.

"It'll…pass…eventually…" he gasped out between convulsions.

"I hope so," Metatron replied. Then he knelt down, picked up Bloodborne, and put him over his shoulder. Unfurling his wings again he launched himself into the air and over to where the boy Robin had called Human Shield was standing in defence of the four who were currently powerless, and Neuroa who was directing things from afar. It didn't seem like anyone had bothered them yet.

"Room for one more here?" he asked, gently laying Bloodborne down.

"We'll take care of him," Fiona replied.

"You best get back out there though," said Neuroa.

Metatron nodded and returned to the fight.

Starfire wanted to help Bloodborne, but there was really nothing she could have done even if her hands hadn't still been bound, so she resumed watching the battle. Although the hastily-dubbed Titans outnumbered their foes, not all of them were involved in the main fight. Combined with the obvious training the Raincoat team had received, Starfire's battle trained eyes could tell that the Titans were not the strongest side. Yet the Olympians did not have someone directing the battle from afar, nor did they have someone waiting to heal any injuries. The longer the fight lasted, the more likely the Titans were to emerge victorious.

Starfire hated that she could not aid her friends in the battle, that she was forced to observe helplessly from the sidelines as they risked their lives. She watched as Robin and Typhoon squared off against each other, as leaders inevitably do.

Eyes locked together, they circled each other, seemingly oblivious to the carnage going on around them.

"You should not have interfered here," Typhoon said. "You will accomplish nothing."

"I did you a favour actually."

Tyhpoon stopped circling, amused yet sceptical about this.

"How so?" He asked.

"Well," Robin replied, "if I hadn't come, Batman would have. And you really wouldn't have liked that."

Robin sprung forward, swinging his staff around in a wide arc, aiming at Typhoon's head. The Raincoat soldier ducked in response, the bo staff brushing his spiky red hair as it passed, and he spun around trying to sweep Robin's legs from beneath him. But Robin had already jumped; his first attack had been a feint, and now he was twisting in the air, bringing his staff down with full force towards his foe's head.

It missed by millimetres as Typhoon saw the attack coming at the last second and managed to jerk himself away. Robin had expected the attack to hit and had slightly overbalanced but he quickly used his momentum to his advantage. Typhoon was still attempting to recover his balance when the staff swung at him again, and he could do nothing but throw himself backwards. Robin pressed his advantaged and launched a flurry of attacks that Typhoon barely dodged until he was forced to block the last one with his arms.

They leapt apart again as a ball of yellow energy went flying past between them and they resumed their circling before Robin spoke again.

"You're all kinetics, aren't you?" he said. Although his attention had seemed to be completely focused on the man in front of him he was still aware of everything that was happening around them. "Telekinetic, pyrokinetic, aerokinetic…not one of you has a different type of power." He had to move to the side to avoid a burst of flame that scorched past him. "My first attack should have hit. You nudged it off course at the last second. Are you telekinetic?"

Typhoon's only response was to smile viciously and launch another attack, feinting to the right and then switching to the left, going in with a jab to the face. Although he was clearly well-trained his moves were obvious to someone of Robin's level, and he dodged easily.

Then he heard a rushing sound behind him, but even that didn't give him enough warning. Suddenly he was completely encased in a bubble of water, seemingly floating in mid-air. He almost let out what little oxygen he had in a gasp of surprise, but managed to restrain himself. He saw Typhoon speak, and although the worlds were highly muffled he could still read his lips.

"Hydrokinetic, actually." Typhoon brought his arm up, and the water moved, taking Robin with it, and crushing him against a metal crate. The pressure pushed down on his chest, threatening to compress his lungs and force out the rest of his air. He struggled against it but couldn't seem to find purchase on anything. He pulled an explosive batarang from his belt and tossed it, hopefully far enough away that it wouldn't hurt him, but close enough to disrupt the water. Thankfully he had managed to judge the distance correctly. Unfortunately, as soon as the water was blown away it was pulled back in again. As darkness started to creep in to the edges of his vision he pulled two more batarangs from his belt and hoped his crazy plan worked.

Meanwhile, if you were wondering what was happening to Leo Knight and Zhara (and I know at least Asta was), after Leo had taken over from Beast Boy he had given Zhara enough time to pick herself up from the ground.

"Why are you doing this Karen?" he asked, his tone pleading. "Is it because I wouldn't help you? If it is…I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. I'm just terrified of losing you, you know that."

"Never fear, brother, my motivations are not nearly so trivial as mere revenge. I serve the Unholy Prince now." As she said this Zhara took a step towards him and gestured delicately with her fingers, flames racing up to cover her right arm.

Leo took a step back.

" The Unholy Prince? Do you mean…Satan? Is this some sort of brainwashing cult?"

"He would never stoop to such means!" Zhara screamed. She thrust out her hand and the flame shot from it straight at Leo. He managed to duck out of the way, barely, and the fire hit an inoperative machine behind him. As he rose again he touched the button on his palm to generate electricity and then made it dance in his hand. Although he could control it, he could not create it, unlike his sister.

"I…I d-don't want to hurt you Karen. Please don't make me. Please." He was practically begging, but he didn't care. If he thought getting down on his knees would have made a difference he would have.

Amazingly, Zhara seemed to soften at this. The fire on her arm went out and she took a more tentative step towards him.

"I don't want to hurt you either, Leon," she said sincerely. Relief flooded Leo. He closed the distance between them and wrapped her in a tight hug. After a moment she pushed away from him slightly.

"Join us," she said. "Fight beside me, not against me. Agree to serve the dark master. A new time is coming, when the Unholy Prince shall rule all, and we will be his most trusted servants. Second only to him! It will be glorious. The only thing that could make it better would be my brother at my side."

Leo looked into her eyes and saw the intense glint of fanaticism.

"He has brainwashed you, hasn't he? This is some form of mind control. Sorry Karen, or Zhara, or whatever it is you're calling yourself. I don't want to hurt you but it looks like that's the only way to save you."

He charged his hand with electricity again and then shot it out towards her, but instead of dodging backwards like he expected she rushed towards him, bringing her own hand around to slam into the armour on his chest. There was not much force behind the blow so Leo was barely rocked backwards, but after a moment he felt his chest heating up. Looking down he saw each of her fingers glowing brightly, hot enough to melt through his specially designed suit of armour.

And she was doing it at the exact spot where the energy core was. He tried to charge electricity into his hand again to defend himself but she was already tearing the core out of his suit. She threw it into the air and tossed a fireball at it, causing it to explode. With his powers effectively neutralised Leo had no choice but to resort to hand-to-hand combat so he lashed out with a kick to Zhara's stomach and then dove behind a nearby machine to escape the blast of flame that came his way in response.

He had to be able to find power somewhere in this place.

Across the room, Meteorion was thinking something completely unrelated to Leo's plight. Namely, that she wasn't cut out for this superhero business. She was desperately trying to avoid a giant hand made of earth that seemed intent on grinding her into dust, but no matter how she dodged or how large a blast she aimed back at it she just couldn't get rid of it.

_Duck!_ said a voice in her head, and she complied instantly, just barely managing to avoid a second hand that seemed to come from nowhere trying to swat her like a fly. She couldn't even work out who it was that was attacking her. Every time she stopped to take a look she left herself open for an attack. All she needed was a moment to get her bearings.

When she saw one of the hands sweeping in for another attack she spun around to meet it, firing as many discs at it as she could. Hundreds of tiny pieces of debris where thrown from it forming a small dust cloud, but what she needed was bigger, so she charged the biggest energy disc she could and blasted it at the earth. It severed the hand from the arm and the resultant cloud was more than adequate. After a pause to make sure that she couldn't be seen she took a deep breath…and then began choking on all the dust. Coughing and spluttering she stumbled about, trying to find a patch of clear air. Which she did, clearing her lugs just in time to see the arm barrelling towards her.

Yup, she thought, as it smashed into her and began to crush her against a wall. She definitely wasn't cut out for this.

Neuroa, watching from afar, scoured the battlefield for someone who could be spared to help Meteorion. She saw Photon and Bullet double-teaming a female Raincoat soldier.

_Photon, Bullet, can either of you help out Meteorion? There's a geokinetic that's got her between a rock and a hard place, literally. _

"We're kind of busy right now!" Photon replied aloud. She was trying to dodge a large and probably very heavy piece of machinery that had been knocked over by a blast of pink energy from her opponent. The Raincoat soldier was wearing a black and red mask but had distinctive pink hair tied into pigtails, and she seemed to be able to throw blasts of bad luck. That just so happened to also be coloured pink.

Now, I could go for the rest of this scene calling her 'the Raincoat soldier' or 'the eikoskinetic', or I could confirm what ninety-nine percent of you should have already guessed and just call her Jinx.

Anyway, moving on.

"It's okay, I won't be gone long," Bullet said, and then disappeared in a flash of black and white.

"Bullet! Come back!" Photon called after her, staring in despair at the now vacant spot beside her. Belatedly she remembered she was in the middle of a fight, and she turned just in time to avoid a pink hex blast.

"You really should pay more attention," Jinx said as she cart wheeled closer, nimbly dodging the bolts of light Photon threw off in a counterattack. Jinx fired her own blasts, left, right, left, as she wheeled and spun ever closer. Photon desperately scrambled back almost tripping over the debris that littered the ground, just barely avoiding each of the blasts. And then – _slam._

She had backed up right into the wall. Jinx finally stood straight, a triumphant grin on her face.

"Told you so!" she sing-songed, and raised her hands above her head, a large hex blast charging in them. Photon cried out in alarm and instinctively raised her own arms, her hands clenching tightly.

Unexpectedly, Jinx faltered, the pink glow fading out unspent.

"What…what did you do to me?!" She clutched at her face. "I'm… blind. You've blinded me!_ I'll get you for this, you little bitch!_"

Jinx swung out with a fist in a clumsy attack. Photon ducked beneath the swipe, then again as another flailing limb shot out at her. She tried to slide along the wall to the right, but a hex blast impacted on the wall, little specs of concrete exploding out.

"You're not going to get away from me!" Jinx screeched.

Photon sank down to the ground instead, all but cowering before the pink girl. Her arms were still raised in front of her with her fists clenched. She was afraid that if she moved them Jinx's sight would return, and then she was done for. There had to be some way out of this, but she just couldn't figure it out.

"Hey, what did I miss–" started a new voice – Bullet, returned from aiding Meteorion. She stopped short as she took in the scene. The momentary hesitation was all it took for Jinx to aim a hex blast her way. Bullet started to move but the blast clipped her, and she tripped, her momentum carrying her forward to crash towards the wall, unfortunately right where Photon was cowering. The light manipulator let out a squeal of fright but couldn't move, and the two girls collided.

Jinx blinked as her vision returned and saw the two of them lying in a heap against the wall, limbs in a tangled mess. She snorted in disgust.

"Amateurs."

Right at the far end of the hall another Raincoat operative was saying something similar. It was a young man with shoulder length hair prematurely grey in colour, and he wore no mask to hide his attractive face. His clothes too, although almost identical to the standard Raincoat uniform, seemed to be in some way subtly different, more stylish. In short, he had a _presence_ about him, a natural charisma or charm that drew the eye. Currently he was sitting atop a metal frame, surveying the battle scene in front of him. Although sitting might not have been the best word for it. His relaxed posture verging on a slouch suggested another name: lazing.

"I can't believe this. None of you measure up. It's a wonder I was included in such a group, to be honest, because you're clearly all far beneath me."

Fever, the dark skinned pyrokinetic, paused. She had spotted the strange young man sitting out of the main battle and had decided to investigate what he was up to. Unfortunately her bright yellow costume hadn't been designed for stealth, but she had given it her best shot, sticking to what shadows there were and keeping out of sight whenever possible as she crept closer towards him. Having been spotted she was about to step out of the cover she was in when the man spoke again.

"I mean, the Boss says we've to fight, so I'm here, but really! There's no one here who can challenge me! No one even worth my time!"

There was something about the way he was talking, as if to an audience…or maybe just to himself. He hadn't spotted her at all. He was just indulging his ego. Fever continued on.

"Now, maybe if the Bat himself had shown up I might have understood. That would have been worth getting out of bed for. The headlines would have been amazing." The man rose to his feet, his arm gesturing before him theatrically. "'The Magnificent Kan Defeats the Bat!' Or 'Batman Dead, Kan Victorious!'" The Raincoat soldier, apparently called Kan, heaved a great sigh. "Alas. It was not to be."

Fever had gotten as close as she dared. With the man practically prancing around in full view on top of the framework it would not be difficult to hit him, and she was fairly sure he hadn't spotted her yet. Without the time to dodge, he wouldn't have a chance, which was something Fever was profoundly grateful for. His constant monologue was making her want to vomit. She took careful aim.

"Instead, I'm just left with the amateurs. Oh well, at least there's not much--"

He was cut off when the blast of flame crashed into him, the fire and smoke enveloping his body, only a strangled cry of shock and pain piercing through it before that too disappeared. Fever hoped she hadn't overdone it but her fire was always stronger when she was angry and Kan had been seriously pissing her off.

Slowly the smoke cleared, and in its wake was left…nothing. Absolutely nothing.

"Well, that was rude."

Fever spun around and her eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. Sitting once again, this time on a crate in the corner, completely unharmed, impeccably dressed, and – impossibly – looking even more attractive, was Kan.

"Oh, sweet thing, stop, please! I know I look good but such close scrutiny makes even me blush!"

Fever just continued to gape.

"Oh, well, if you insist." Kan sat back and preened himself.

Somewhat regaining control of her senses, Fever half-heartedly threw another fireball at Kan, barely taking the time to aim properly. As such the blast flew high, but it would still have clipped Kan's head had he not scrambled to duck at the last second.

"Hey now, pretty lady! None of that. You could do some serious damage to a face as handsome as this with one of those, and oh what a tragedy that would be." He slipped forward off the crate and made to close the distance between them. "What say we have ourselves a little…" he stopped short as Fever raised her fists defensively before her, flames encasing them. "…dance?"

"I don't know what your deal is but in case you haven't noticed there's a fight going on, and we're on opposite sides," Fever said.

"Oh, no! No, no, no. What _you_ haven't noticed is that the music has started…and it's playing my song." A look flittered across Kan's face then, a look at odds with the carefree attitude he had so far displayed, a look that could only be described as dangerous. But Fever had little time to process this fact before something else caught her attention. She could hear music. And it wasn't as if someone had just switched it on, no, it was that it had only taken her until now to notice it. It had been playing all along, a lilting, carefree orchestral piece.

Kan was standing in front of her, a smug smile on his face detracting from his otherwise perfect features, with one hand extended out towards her. "Shall we?" he asked.

Fever swiped out with one flaming fist to bat at the offered hand but Kan managed to pull back just in time.

"A simple no would have been…" he started, but another blast of flame cut him off as he was forced to leap to the side to dodge. Fever followed it with another, and another, a whole barrage of fire blanketing the area. But Kan managed to avoid every single one, ducking and weaving, spinning on the spot…he looked like he'd decided to dance anyway.

"Maybe you're more of a waltz girl?" he asked, and then the music changed. It wasn't like someone had switched tracks. One song melded seamlessly into the other, the lilting tune now replaced by a more serious waltz.

Fever growled in annoyance and closed the gap between the two. She started throwing in some hand-to-and manoeuvres and although Kan still managed to dodge her attacks she could tell he was finding it difficult. What she couldn't work out was why he was bothering to dodge at all. She was almost certain that her first attack had hit, and it should have at least singed his clothes. In fact, she had expected him to be severely wounded. But he had reappeared looking completely untouched. If he could completely shrug off an attack like that one, why was he bothering to dodge here?

And what in god's name was up with that music?

"Okay! Obviously not waltz! Let's move away from classical….oh, lord, you're not into _pop_ are you?" And with that sneering accusation the music changed again and this time Fever faintly recognised it as a reasonably recent song from the charts. Some girl group or other.

She didn't let up her assault though and she could tell she was driving him back. He continued to dodge but he was beginning to sweat – from his acrobatics as well as how close her flames were getting. With one more blast she forced him back a last step and he toppled backwards, having crashed into the crate he was sitting on before. Now he lay across it fumbling to get one hand underneath him for balance, looking up just in time to see her leaping towards him with a flaming fist aimed directly at his head. He threw out his other hand and cried out.

"STOP!"

There was a power in his voice, one that was fuelled by his charisma, an almost irresistible tone of command. Fever, caught by surprise, stopped.

There was silence for a few moments.

"Hammer time!"

Then, inexplicably, he was off the crate and standing behind her and….was doing the dance. The MC Hammer dance. Whilst singing along to the music, which had changed again.

"You can't touch this."

She was being mocked. He'd been mocking her all along. Her anger rose and with it her power, engulfing her hands, then her arms, then her entire body. She almost flew at him, the flames extending metres to either side of her, offering no chance at escape. He had time only to blink and then she was upon him…and through him. She stopped herself before her momentum carried her into a wall, and turned to look at him again. He was completely unfazed.

"You. Can't. Touch. This."

He was…intangible? No, that wouldn't explain his seeming ability to teleport. He was…

"An illusion. That's all you are." She laughed at him, and he frowned. "Just an illusion."

She had no warning of the blow that landed on her head, a sharp downswing of a metal pipe held in the hands of another Kan. Fever dropped to the ground unconscious.

"Not just an illusion."

The two Kan's faced each other over the fallen teen.

"My, you look sexy today," one of them said.

"You know, I was just thinking the same thing…"

Across the battlefield where many fights were taking place, music could be heard, but was not noticed.

Entirely at the other end of the room a small group of teens were huddled in front of a large door that stubbornly refused to open. Fiona, Zach, and Sean sere sitting against said doors. On the ground in front of them were the unconscious bodies of Bloodborne and Meteorion, and occasionally standing, occasionally pacing just beyond them was Starfire. In front of her was Human Shield, standing ready to defend his companions from any threat that came their way, and Neuroa, observing the battle and helping where she could.

Things were not going well. Cyborg had gone to the aid of Beast Boy and Coatl but it was still four-on-three and they were slowly being worn down. Robin was not faring well against Typhoon, nor Leo against Zhara. Slyde, Metatron and Legend and teamed up against another three Raincoat operatives but weren't getting very far, and the rest of the Titans were scattered across the battlefield, unconscious or unable to fight. Solenoid was desperately trying to keep herself and Soul from being hurt by the two operatives that pursued them, and there was no time to be healing anyone.

Starfire closed her eyes in despair. If only her hands were not bound, she would be able to help her new found friends, but there was nothing she could do. Then she forced her eyes open again. At the very least she would bear witness to their battles.

Solenoid was dragging Soul almost by the scruff of his neck. She jumped past a large crate and held them both against the wall, looking for the next attack. A slab of concrete from the floor was flipped up and thrown at them. Solenoid pushed it aside even as she jumped again, lifting them to the ceiling this time. But she had been running for some time now and she couldn't hold them there for more than a few seconds before jumping back down to the ground. Which was a good thing, because a blast of electricity impacted on the roof where they had just been.

"Can't…keep this up…" she panted "…is there nothing…you can do?"

Soul, who was looking slightly bedraggled himself from all the leaping around, shook his head.

"I don't believe in violence. I swore an oath only to use my powers to heal."

Solenoid made a slightly strangled noise at hearing this. Then her eyes widened in shock.

"Get down!" she shouted even as she let loose most of her remaining force between them, pushing them both back away from each other as metal pole went whizzing past. Soul was sent over to where Neuroa and the rest were, and Solenoid herself went flying back into the metal frame of a weights machine. She managed to soften her impact and grab hold of it before she slipped and fell to the ground. The metal pole came back for a second go, striking out at her head. She ducked underneath it, but it wasn't finished. It stuck out again and this time she had to swing down from the top of the frame to avoid it, using her powers to push herself enough to swing back up again. As she came back up she grabbed the pole to still it.

And then she realised her mistake, as an arc of lightning shot out, not aiming at her but at the pole. She tried to drop it but wasn't fast enough – the electricity hit and travelled along the pole, through her, then down to the earth. Her muscles fried, she slid from the top of the frame and toppled to the ground.

Solenoid could feel every inch of her body crying out in agony but she couldn't just give up. She was just attempting to push herself to her feet, her arms shaking under the strain, when two shadows fell across her.

"Knew you couldn't keep that up forever." Force, the telekinetic one, leered down at her.

"Looks like we get to have some fun now." Shock had an arc of electricity running playfully between his fingers as he looked over at the mostly powerless group of Titans.

Solenoid grimaced as she finally got her legs under her, determination forcing her to her feet. But just as she was beginning to rise a weight slammed into her, throwing her back against the frame with a sickening crunch.

Soul had used the slight breather to see to the two teens that had been carried back to the group. There was nothing he could do for Bloodborne, who would recover on his own (and shortly, if Soul was any judge) but he managed to bring Meteorion around.

Even still, things did not look good as Force and Shock approached with matching lecherous grins on their faces. Starfire was at a total loss. All around her, her comrades were falling, injured or possibly worse. Human Shield moved right into the fore of the group, directly in the path of the two enemies.

"If you want to get to them, you have to go through me!" he shouted defiantly.

Force and Shock stopped and looked at each other quizzically. They looked back at Human Shield…who suddenly found himself picked up and thrown across the other side of the room. Neuroa paled.

Meteorion moved forward and fired a disc of energy but a blast of electricity cut straight through it and into her, throwing her backwards.

For Starfire everything seemed to slow down. She looked out across the battle seeming to take in everything at once. Meteorion crashed into the wall behind her as Human Shield finally impacted on the wall on the far side of the room. Neuroa took a step backward away from the two soldiers. Solenoid lay crumpled under a pile of weights, unmoving. Bullet and Photon lying in a heap against the wall. Phaeism and Slyde unconscious on the floor as Metatron and Legend fought to protect their bodies. Cyborg, Coatl, and Beast Boy backed into a corner.

Robin, momentarily bursting free of a ball of water threatening to drown him before it surrounded him once more.

A great anger welled up in Starfire. The first people she had met in a long while that she could call friends were fighting for their lives, and losing. As the rage built up she acted instinctually, channelling into her hands as power, before she realised it wouldn't work, that the handcuffs were still on. Only…it _was_ working. Looking down she saw sparks leaping from the panel that Robin had managed to prise open and a green glow began to emanate from beneath it. Focusing her considerable anger she began charging the largest starbolt of her life.

"Get…away…from my friends!" she screamed as she raised her hands above her head (the handcuffs finally tearing free) and then she brought them down, throwing the starbolt right at Force and Shock. There was no time for them to dodge and the starbolt was large enough to encompass both of them, a huge burst of light enveloping them then sending them flying backwards.

Starfire rose up into the air, her fists and eyes glowing green.

"You will not hurt my friends anymore."

Force and Shock, lying on the ground singed and smoking, made no move to argue. Or even get up.

Twin explosions caught Starfire's attention and she looked over to see Robin on the ground panting having somehow escaped the water bubble he had been trapped in. His foe was on the ground unconscious. Robin looked up and saw Starfire hovering in the air, her hands unbound, and he smiled. Rising to his feet he jogged over to her.

"You managed to free yourself I see."

Starfire grabbed him in a bear hug.

"I could not have done it without your help! Thank you, friend!"

She did not seem to hear the gargling noises he made as she squeezed him tight enough to restrict his breathing, but they both heard the entirely unsubtle noise of someone clearing their throat.

"A-_hem_."

Starfire dropped Robin and they both looked over to see Raven standing beside them. Her eyes were fixed on Robin's.

"We need to talk."

Others, however, were still fighting. Leo Knight was still not faring well against his sister.

"If you do not join us then you will burn with all the rest!" Zhara cried. Leo was taking cover behind a metal box but as a blast of flame roared past he realised he wasn't quite as covered as he'd like. The fire clipped his exposed left arm and although his suit did not catch alight the heat was still intense. He cried out and dived to his right, rolling across an open space and under what seemed to be a boxing ring. The pain in his arm was abominable, feeling as if it was still on fire, but a quick glance told him it was not so. He tried to push it to the back of his mind.

"Don't hide brother. I'm trying to make it as painless as possible."

Leo glanced back. Apparently she had missed his desperate roll across to the ring and didn't know where he had gone. Maybe he could use that to get the advantage.

He lowered his head to the ground, peering out through the gap between the floor and the fabric that was currently hiding him from sight. He saw his sister standing by the metal plate he had been using as cover. She was looking around, clearly searching for any sign of him.

He desperately tried to think of a strategy to defeat her. With his suit damaged he had no way of generating electricity and as far as he could see there was none nearby. The lights in the ceiling were too far above his head for him to do anything with them and there didn't seem to be any power outlets in the room. Without his powers he was reduced to plan B; hand-to-hand combat. While he knew he was stronger than his sister he would have to get close enough to use it and that was going to be tricky.

As he watched, she began to walk towards him. His best chance would be to let her get close enough to him then attack her when her back was turned. As she approached his hiding place he shifted positions as quietly as possible, trying to set himself up for what he was about to attempt. She stopped a couple of paces from him and glanced around.

Seizing his chance he attempted to push himself quickly out of his cover, but his left arm screamed in agony and buckled beneath his weight. He couldn't get enough momentum to move him out of the cover so instead he kicked himself back under.

And it was a good thing he did because it was at that moment that Zhara looked back around. Had he succeeded in his attempt he would still have been scrambling to his feet and she would have had no problems burning him to a crisp. Leo's heart was hammering in his chest at the close call.

Zhara walked past him another couple of paces before stopping again to look around. It was as she passed that he got his first good look at her back, and he finally got a bit of luck. He noticed that her flight mechanism had been torn open as if by claws or talons, and sparks were occasionally leaping from it.

Turn about was fair play, he thought grimly.

He crawled closer to her current position and then slightly ahead of her. Sure enough, after a couple of moments she moved forwards again and ended up just ahead of where Leo was waiting. As she glanced around he rolled out from the cover and, mindful of his injured arm, rose to his feet directly behind her. Without giving her the slightest chance he plunged his hand into the claw marks on her armour and let the electricity erupt from within.

She gave an odd, startled scream, cut off after only a second while her body jerked with the current flowing through it. After a few moments Leo eased up and she dropped to the ground unconscious. He looked down at her, breathing deeply as his heart rate slowly returned to normal.

He bent down and picked his sister up, turning to carry her to Neuroa and the others.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you," he said.

Zhara gave him no response.

In the meantime Soul had been busy healing some of their injured back to full health. Not that all of them would thank him for it.

Take Slyde, for instance. He had begun the fight employing guerrilla tactics. His control over friction allowed him to move quickly but didn't grant him any real benefit offensively so he concentrated on zipping about occasionally distracting a Raincoat soldier so that one of the others could get a good hit in. It was a good tactic, but unfortunately he must have attracted some unwanted attention, as he was knocked unconscious with no idea what had hit him. And he would quite happily have left it at that if the alternative was what was happening to him now.

Now he knew what was hitting him.

It was little pink bolts of energy.

Every time one of them hit him something bad would happen. He'd lose his balance or trip over and slam into a wall. But the worst thing was that they didn't even need to hit him. Hitting near him seemed to be good enough as crates would fall over or the floor would crack and he'd end up being heavily bruised again.

Actually, maybe that wasn't the worst thing. Maybe the worst thing was that the girl that was throwing the pink blasts was quite obviously laughing at him. Every time he tried to retaliate, every time he even got too close to her she would throw a blast at him and he'd go flying right past and into another wall.

Slyde wasn't even the only one cursing Soul for healing him back into the fight. Phaeism was having problems of his own.

He'd done his fair share in the battle so far, even taken out one of the Raincoat soldiers, but now had managed to get stuck up against his worst possible opponent: an aerokinetic. In his gaseous state he was putty in the soldier's hands, the wind driving him wherever the soldier wanted. Even as normal he couldn't really do anything as large gusts allowed the aerokinetic to keep his distance while sharper blasts cut into Phaeism's skin. He was on the run, desperately trying to keep something solid between him and the soldier. Which is perhaps why he wasn't looking where he was going.

"LOOK OUT!" Slyde cried, unable to slow his forward momentum enough before he crashed into Phaeism. The two lay in a tangled heap on the floor.

"I hate aerokinetics." Phaeism's muffled voice came from somewhere beneath Slyde.

"I hate probability manipulators," Slyde responded.

Phaeism pushed Slyde's leg off of his chest and sat up.

"Switch?" he asked.

"Switch," Slyde agreed.

Phaeism decided the easiest way to untangle themselves was for him to turn to gas, and he reformed himself standing upright. They nodded at each other before heading off to their respective targets.

Phaeism approached Jinx. The girl seemed to be recovering from a fit of laughter.

"Aww, Accident Boy doesn't want to play with me any more? I guess you'll have to do instead."

Jinx throw a hex blast at Phaeism who turned himself to gas, and the blast passed right through him and impacted on a climbing frame behind him. The frame gave a massive creak and collapsed forward but Phaeism, still in his gas form, wasn't worried. The frame fell straight through him. Jinx's eyes widened in alarm.

This was much more like it, Phaeism thought with a smirk.

Meanwhile Slyde poured on the speed, sliding across the ground as if it were ice. The aerokinetic saw him coming and sent a massive gust of wind his way, but Slyde concentrated on reducing the air friction and the gust blew harmlessly around him. Slyde swung his fist as he reached the soldier and it connected with his face.

On second thought, maybe it was alright to be back in the fight after all.

The battle had swung decisively in favour of the Titans and although some fights were still continuing they clearly had the upper hand. Raven, Robin and Starfire approached Cyborg as he and Beast Boy, Coatl, and Legend succeeded in scaring off the last of the large group that had been picking on them.

"Cyborg, Raven's located the source of the mind control," Robin said as he reached the group.

"It seems to be coming from an additional chamber not far from here," Raven continued. "And…whoever is doing this must be powerful."

"Starfire here has shown she's a pretty heavy hitter, so I want the four of us to go investigate it." Robin looked around at the other three. "Beast Boy, Coatl, you guys handle things here."

Cyborg was nodding but Beast Boy looked heartbroken.

"You don't want me to come with you?"

"Like Raven said, Beast Boy, whoever is doing this must be powerful. I don't want you to get hurt."

At this, Beast Boy's expression changed from heartbroken to outright angry.

"Oh I get it. You're just like Mento. You think I'm not good enough for this." Robin tried to interrupt but Beast Boy was having none of it. "Well, here's something to think about. How many of you have experience fighting in a team, huh? Not one on one, not as somebody else's sidekick, but actually with a group of people?"

Nobody responded to that.

"I've been with the Doom Patrol almost my entire life. Sure, I was only the mascot but I'm willing to bet I've still got more team experience than the rest of you combined! You need me and I'm going, end of story."

Beast Boy stormed off towards the exit.

"It's the _other_ door, Beast Boy," Raven said.

"I knew that!" he responded as he changed course to the other door. He stopped and leaned beside his, his arms crossed and every muscle in his body radiating his frustration.

There was an embarrassed silence for a few moments after his outburst.

"Well…I guess, uh, that makes the five of us then," Robin said, clearing his throat.

"Six," said Legend. Robin was about to protest when she held something out to him. He looked down in bemusement at the little teddy bear in her hand, made to look like an old man, wearing glasses and carrying a walking stick.

"Mr Scruff is going with you too."

Robin took hold of the bear, not quite sure what to say.

"Don't worry. He'll look after you," Legend said to Robin, then she walked off to help in another fight.

Robin looked up at Coatl.

"Can you handle things here on your own?" he asked.

Coatl looked around at the few skirmished still ongoing.

"Yeah, no problem," he replied, and headed off.

Robin, Cyborg, Starfire and Raven looked at each other for a moment, seeming to steel themselves for the battle ahead, then almost as one they moved over to the door that Beast Boy was leaning beside.

"What took you so long?" the green boy asked, a grin already lighting his features again.

Robin held a finger to his lips and pushed the door open. On the other side was a long hallway, dimly lit by light coming from the room at the end. The group crept along the hall in single file. No other doors led off from it and after about twenty metres it opened out into a large room.

Although similar in size the previous chamber had clearly been a training area of some kind whilst this space was obviously living quarters, and quite a luxurious one at that. Three large cream sofas were arranged in the main room grouped around a rectangular glass table littered with various books and magazines. Large paintings hung upon red walls, interspersed with objects from various cultures – here an aboriginal mask, there a Chinese Guqin, on one wall a Scottish Claymore two-handed sword hung over the fireplace that the couches were clustered around. Around the room pedestals held various vases and busts. A large set of heavy wooden double doors in the opposite wall lay open, revealing a large bedroom beyond, a grand and ornate four poster bed lying within. To the right a large stairway led up to another level, a balcony visible surrounding the room. The entire room was suffused with a soft light emanating from a chandelier in the high ceiling, and the stately feel was capped off by the majestic sounds of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to arrive." Reclining in the middle of one of the sofas, facing away from them, was a large man with long black hair. Although he spoke perfect English his voice had a vaguely European burr and as the five teens filed into the room he rose to his feet and turned towards them. He was wearing the Raincoat colours but instead of a uniform he was wearing fine clothes; a pair of red pants and a red shirt with a large collar, on top of which was a black waist coat. A black cape fell from his shoulders.

"I…am Dracula."

Shocked silence met this announcement. A shocked silence that, once again, Beast Boy felt the need to break.

"I knew it was him all along!"

* * *

AN: ...bator.


End file.
